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ANNA KARENINA
VOL. I
Vronsky pleading with Anna.
Original Drawing by E. Boyd Smith.
Anna Karenina
BY
LYOF N. TOLSTOI
TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN
. BY NATHAN HASKELL DOLE .
ILLUSTRATED
#
NEW YORK.
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY
PUBLISHEI^S
m'
Copyright, 1899,
By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
INTRODUCTION
ALEXANDER PUSHKIN, Russia's greatest poet
and the inspirer of the two best works of Gogol,
the father of Russian realism, may perhaps be regarded
as the direct cause of Count Tolstoi's greatest novel.
A relative happened to be visiting at Yasnaya Polyana,
and had been reading a volume of Pushkin. Count
Tolstoi picked up the work and opened it casually.
Some one entered as he was glancing over the pages,
and he exclaimed, " Here is something charming ! This
is the way to write ! Pushkin goes to the heart of the
matter."
Count Tolstof was so impressed by Pushkin's direct-
ness that he immediately felt like emulating him. He
asked to be kept free from interruptions, shut himself
into his library, and began "Anna Karenina."
The publication of it began in the Russky Viestnik
or Ricssian Messenger in 1875; but it was frequently
interrupted. Months and even years elapsed before it
was concluded ; yet it kept public attention. Not even
the break of several months between two of the parts
was sufficient to cool the interest of its reader. After
the appearance of the first part he wrote a friend : —
" You praise ' Anna Karenina,' and that is very pleas-
ant to me ; the more so as I hear much in its favor ;
but I am sure that there never was an author more
indifferent to his success than I am in this case."
A year later he wrote : —
" For two whole months I have forborne to stain my
hands with ink or to burden my heart with thoughts.
Now, however, I turn once more to that dull common-
place * Anna Karenina,' moved solely to rid my desk of
it — to make room for other tasks."
2234S44
vi INTRODUCTION
Even then he did not finish it. The next year he
wrote : " The end of winter and the opening of spring
are my busiest months for work. I must finish the
novel of which I have grown so tired." But when he
once took hold of it the spirit of it quickly seized him
again, and much of it was written, as any one can see,
with almost breathless haste.
Polevoif, in his illustrated " History of Russian Litera-
ture," says of this story: "Count Tolsto'f dwells with
especial fondness on the sharp contrast between the
frivolity, the tinsel brightness, the tumult and vanity, of
the worldly life, and the sweet, holy calm enjoyed by
those who, possessing the soil, live amid the beauties of
Nature and the pleasures of the family."
This contrast will strike the attention of every reader.
It is the outgrowth of Count Tolstoi's own life ; his dual
nature is portrayed in the contrasting careers of Levin
and Vronsky. The interweaving of two stories is done
with a masterly hand. One may take them separately
or together ; each strand of the twisted rope follows its
own course, and yet each without the other would be
evidently incomplete.
As one reads, one forgets that it is fiction. It seems
like a transcript of real life, and one is constantly im-
pressed by the vast accumulation of pictures, each illus-
trating and explaining the vital elements of the epopee.
At times one is startled by the vivifying flashes of
genius. The death of Anna is dimly suggested by the
tragic occurrence of the brakeman's death in the Mos-
cow railway station. A still more suggestive intimation
of the approaching tragedy is found in the death of
Vronsky's horse during the officers' handicap race at
Peterhof. If one may so speak, the atmosphere of the
story is electrified with fate. In this respect it is Hke
a Greek drama. There is never a false touch.
Count Tolstoi's brother-in-law says there is no doubt
that Levin is the portrait of the novehst himself, but
represented as being "extremely simple in order to bring
him into still greater contrast with the representatives
of high life in Moscow and St. Petersburg." He also
INTRODUCTION vii
says that the description of the way that Levin and
Kitty make use of the initial letters of the words in
which they wish to express to each other their mutual
love is faithful in its minutest details to the history of
Count Tolstoi's own wooing. And undoubtedly many
of the experiences of Levin on his estate are also tran-
scripts of Count Tolstoi's own experiences.
Tolstoi, like Levin, sought to reform and to better
everything about him, and took part in the Liberal
movements of the time ; but his schemes came to naught,
one after the other, and his nihilism, — for he declares
in his confession that he was a Nihilist in the actual
meaning of the word, — his nihilism triumphs in bitter-
ness on their ruins. The struggle in Levin's mind and
the horror of his despair tempting him also to suicide
are marvelously depicted. At length, as in Tolstoi's
real life, the muzhik comes to his aid, light illumines
his soul, and the work ends in a burst of mystic happi-
ness, a hymn of joy, which he sings to his inmost soul,
not sharing it with his beloved wife, though he knows
that she knows the secret of his happiness.
Interesting and instructive as this idyllic romance is,
the chief power of the novelist is expended in portray-
ing the illicit love of Vronsky and Anna. Its moral
is the opposition of duty to passion. It has been said
that the love that unites the two protagonists is sincere,
deep, almost holy despite its illegality. They were born
for each other ; it was love at first sight, a love which
overleapt all bonds and bounds. But its gratification at
the expense of honor brings the inevitable torment, espe-
cially to the woman who had sacrificed so much. The
agony of remorse, intensified by the mortifications and
humiliations caused by her position, unites itself with
an almost insane jealousy, product also of the unstable
relation in which she is placed. At last the union
becomes so irksome, so painful, so hateful, that the only
escape from it is in suicide.
Count Tolstoi manages with consummate skill to retain
his own respect for the guilty woman. Consequently
the reader's love and sympathy for the unhappy woman
viii INTRODUCTION
never flag. He lays bare each throb of her tortured
heart. He is the Parrhasius of novehsts.
Mr. Howells says : " The warmth and Hght of Tol-
stoi's good heart and right mind are seen in 'Anna
Karenina,' that saddest story of guilty love in which
nothing can save the sinful woman from herself, — not
her husband's forgiveness, her friend's compassion, her
lover's constancy, or the long intervals of quiet in which
she seems safe and happy in her sin. It is she who
destroys herself persistently, step by step, in spite of all
help and forbearance ; and yet we are never allowed to
forget how good and generous she was when we first
met her ; how good and generous she is fitfully, and
more and more rarely to the end. Her lover works out
a sort of redemption through his patience and devotion ;
he grows gentler, wiser, worthier through it ; but even
his good destroys her."
Mr. Howells also comments on the extraordinary
vitality of the work.
" A multitude of figures pass before us," he says,
"recognizably real, never caricatured nor grotesqued,
noP*in any way unduly accented, but simple and actual
in t]^ir evil or their good. There is lovely family Ufe,
the tenderness of father and daughter, the rapture of
young wife and husband, the innocence of girlhood, the
beauty of fidelity ; there is the unrest and folly of fashion,
the misery of wealth, and the wretchedness of wasted
and mistaken Ufe, the hollowness of ambition, the cheer-
ful emptiness of some hearts, the dull emptiness of
others. It is a world, and you Hve in it while you read
and long afterward, but at no step have you been be-
trayed, not because your guide has warned or exalted
you, but because he has been true, and has shown you
all things as they are."
It is hardly worth while to particularize the immortal
scenes with which the panoramic canvas is crowded,
though the Vicomte de Vogii^ characterizes the death-
bed scene of NikolaY Levin as " one of the most finished
masterpieces of which Uterature has reason to be proud,"
and the description of the races at Tsarskoye-Selo, apart
INTRODUCTION ix
from its tragic moment, is amazing for its vividness and
beauty. Indeed, there are dozens of wonderful pictures
of life and death in the story. And no translation,
however faithful, can do justice to the quiet humor
packed away often in a single word of the staccato mu-
zhik dialect, which no one ever handled more success-
fully than Count Tolstoi.
The translation has been thoroughly revised and
largely rewritten. All passages formerly omitted have
been restored, and the occasional temptation to em-
broider by paraphrase on what the author left purposely
simple, plain, and direct, has been resisted.
The Russian words and interjections (which, with the
idea of giving local color, were employed in the first
edition) have been for the most part eliminated, and the
glossary is therefore superfluous. The translator's whole
purpose has been to give a faithful presentation of this
immortal work.
CHIEF PERSONS OF THE STORY
Aleksel Aleksandrovitch Karenin.
Anna Arkadyevna Karenina (Madame Karenin).
Count Aleksei (Alosha) Kirillovitch Vronsky.
His mother, the Countess Vronsky or Vronskaya.
His brother, Aleksandr Kirillovitch Vronsky.
Prince {Kniaz) Stephan (Stiva) Arkadyevitch Oblonsky.
Princess {Kniaginya) Darya (Dolly, Dolinka, Dashenka) Aleksandrovna
Oblonsky or Oblonskaya.
Konstantin (Kostia) Dmitriyevitch (Dmitritch) Levin, proprietor of Po-
krovsky.
His brother, Nikolai Dmitriyevitch Levin.
His mistress, Marya Nikolayevna.
His kalf-brother, Sergyel Ivanovitch (Ivanuitch, Ivanitch) Koznuishef.
Prince Aleksandr Shcherbatsky.
Princess Shcherbatsky or Shcherbatskaya.
Their daughter, the Princess (^Kniazhna) Yekaterina (Kitty, Katyonka,
Katerina, Katya) Aleksandrovna Shcherbatsky or Shcherbatskaya
(afterwards Levin or Levina).
Their nephew, Prince Nikolai Shcherbatsky.
ANNA KARENINA
PART FIRST
" Vengeance is mine, I will repay "
CHAPTER I
ALL happy families resemble one another; every
unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
All was confusion in the house of the Oblonskys.
The wife had discovered that her husband was having
an intrigue with a French governess who had been in
their employ, and she declared that she could not live
in the same house with him. This condition of things
had lasted now three days, and was causing deep dis-
comfort, not only to the husband and wife, but also to all
the members of the family and the domestics. All the
members of the family and the domestics felt that there
was no sense in their living together, and that in any
hotel people meeting casually had more mutual inter-
ests than they, the members of the family and the
domestics of the house of Oblonsky. The wife did not
come out of her own rooms ; the husband had not been
at home for two days. The children were running over
the whole house as if they were crazy ; the English
maid was angry with the housekeeper and wrote to a
friend begging her to find her a new place. The head
cook had departed the evening before just at dinner-
time ; the kitchen-maid and the coachman demanded
their wages.
On the third day after the quarrel, Prince Stepan
Arkadyevitch Oblonsky — Stiva, as he was called in
society — awoke at the usual hour, that is to say about
VOL. I. — I I
2 ANNA KARENINA
eight o'clock in the morning, not in his wife's chamber,
but in his library, on a leather-covered divan. He
turned his portly pampered body on the springs of the
divan, as if intending to go to sleep again, and as he
did so threw his arm round the cushion and pressed his
cheek to it. But suddenly he sat up and opened his eyes.
" Well, well ! how was it .-' " he mused, recalling a
dream. " Yes, how was it .'' Yes ! Alabin was giving a
dinner at Darmstadt ; no, not at Darmstadt, but it was
something American. Yes, but that Darmstadt was in
America. Yes, Alabin was giving a dinner on glass
tables, yes, and the tables sang '// inio tesoro ' / no, not
'// mio tesoro,' but something better; and some little
water-bottles, they were women ! " said he, continuing
his recollections.
Prince Stepan's eyes flashed gayly and he smiled as
he said to himself : —
" Yes, it was very good, very good. There was some-
thing extremely elegant about it, but you can't tell it in
words, and when you are awake you can't express the
reality even in thought."
Then, as he noticed a ray of sunlight which came in at
the side of one of the heavy window-curtains, he gayly
set his feet down from the divan, found his gilt morocco
slippers — they had been embroidered for him by his wife
the year before as a birthday present — and, according
to an old custom which he had kept up for nine years,
he, without rising, stretched out his hand to the place
where in his chamber hung his dressing-gown. And then
he suddenly remembered how and why he had been
sleeping, not in his wife's chamber, but in the library;
the smile vanished from his face and he frowned.
" Akh ! akh ! akh ! akh ! " he groaned, as he recol-
lected everything that had occurred. And before his
mind arose once more all the details of the quarrel with
his wife, all the hopelessness of his situation, and most
lamentable of all, his own fault.
" No ! she will not and she cannot forgive me. And
what is the worst of it, 't was my own fault — my own
fault, and yet I am not to blame. In that lies all the
ANNA KARENINA 3
tragedy of it," he said to himself. "Akh ! akh ! akh ! "
he kept murmuring in his despair, as he thought over
the exceedingly unpleasant consequences that would
result to him from this quarrel.
The most disagreeable moment was at the very first,
when, as he came home from the theater, happy and
self-satisfied, bringing a monstrous pear for his wife, he
did not find her in the sitting-room, nor, to his surprise,
was she in the library, and at last he saw her in her cham-
ber holding the fatal, all-revealing letter in her hand.
She — Dolly, that forever busy and fussy and foolish
creature as he always considered her — was sitting mo-
tionless with the note in her hand, and looked at him
with an expression of terror, despair, and wrath.
" What is this ? This ? " she demanded, pointing to
the note.
And as often happens, Stepan's torment at this recollec-
tion was caused less by the fact itself than by the answer
which he gave to those words of his wife. His experi-
ence at that moment was the same as other people have
had when unexpectedly detected in some shameful deed.
He was unable to prepare his face for the situation caused
by his wife's discovery of his sin. Instead of getting
offended, denying it, justifying himself, asking forgive-
ness, or even showing indifference — anything would
have been better than what he really did — in spite of
himself (by a reflex action of the brain as Stepan Arka-
dyevitch explained it, for he loved Physiology) abso-
lutely in spite of himself he suddenly smiled with his
ordinary good-humored and therefore stupid smile.
He could not forgive himself for that stupid smile.
When Dolly saw that smile, she trembled as with phys-
ical pain, poured forth a torrent of bitter words, quite
in accordance with her natural temper, and fled from
the room. Since that time she had not been willing to
see her husband.
" That stupid smile caused the whole trouble,"
thought Stepan Arkadyevitch.
" But what is to be done about it, what is to be done } "
he asked himself in despair, and found no answer.
ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER II
Stepan Arkadyevitch was a sincere man as far as
he himself was concerned. He could not practise self-
deception and persuade himself that he repented of his
behavior. He could not, as yet, feel sorry that he, a
handsome, susceptible man of four and thirty, was not
now in love with his wife, the mother of his five living
and two buried children, though she was only a year
his junior. He regretted only that he had not suc-
ceeded in hiding it better from her. But he felt the
whole weight of his situation and pitied his wife, his
children, and himself. Possibly he would have had bet-
ter success in hiding his peccadilloes from his wife had
he realized that this knowledge would have had such an
effect upon her. He had never before thought clearly of
this question, but he had a dim idea that his wife had
long been aware that he was not faithful to her, and
looked at it through her fingers. As she had lost her
freshness, was beginning to look old, was no longer
pretty and far from distinguished and entirely common-
place, though she was an excellent mother of a family,
he had thought that she would allow her innate sense
of justice to plead for him. But it had proved to be
quite the contrary.
" Akh, how wretched ! aJ ! ai' ! ai" ! how wretched ! "
said Prince Stepan to himself over and over and could
not find any way out of the difficulty. " And how well
everything was going until this happened ! How de-
lightfully we lived ! She was content, happy with the
children ; I never interfered with her in any way, I
allowed her to do as she pleased with the children and
the household ! To be sure it was bad that she
had been the governess in our own house ; that
was bad. There is something trivial and common in
playing the gallant to one's own governess ! But what
a governess ! "
He vividly recalled Mile. Roland's black roguish eyes
and her smile.
ANNA KARENINA ^
"But then, while she was here in the house with us, I
did not permit myself any liberties. And the worst of
all is that she is already.... All this must needs happen
just to spite me. Al! ail al'l But what, what is to be
done ? "
There was no answer except that common answer
which life gives to all the most complicated and unsolva-
ble questions, — this answer : You must live according
to circumstances, in other words, forget yourself. But
as you cannot forget yourself in sleep — at least till
night, as you cannot return to that music which the
water-bottle woman sang, therefore you must forget
yourself in the dream of life !
"We shall see by and by," said Stepan Arkadyevitch
to himself, and rising he put on his gray dressing-gown
with blue silk lining, tied the tassels into a knot, and
took a full breath into his ample lungs. Then with his
usual firm step, his legs spread somewhat apart and
easily bearing the solid weight of his body, he went
over to the window, lifted the curtain, and loudly rang
the bell. It was instantly answered by his old friend
and valet Matve, who came in bringing his clothes,
boots, and a telegram. Behind Matve came the barber
with the shaving utensils.
" Are there any papers from the court-house } " asked
Stepan Arkadyevitch, taking the telegram and taking
his seat in front of the mirror.
...."On the breakfast-table," replied Matve, looking
inquiringly and with sympathy at his master, and after
an instant's pause, added with a sly smile, " They have
come from the boss of the livery-stable."
Stepan Arkadyevitch made no reply and only looked
at Matve in the mirror. By the look which they inter-
changed it could be seen how they understood each
other. The look of Stepan Arkadyevitch seemed to
ask, " Why did you say that .■* Don't you know.?"
Matve thrust his hands in his jacket pockets, kicked
out his leg, and silently, good-naturedly, almost smiling,
looked back to his master : —
" I ordered him to come on Sunday, and till then that
$ ANNA KARENINA
you and I should not be annoyed without reason," said
he, with a phrase evidently ready on his tongue.
Stepan Arkady evitch perceived that Matve wanted to
make some jesting reply and attract attention to him-
self. Tearing open the telegram, he read it, using his
wits to make out the words, that were as usual blindly
written, and his face brightened.
.... " Matve, sister Anna Arkadyevna will be here
to-morrow," said he, staying for a moment the plump
gleaming hand of his barber, who was making a pink
path through his long, curly whiskers.
"Thank God," cried Matve, showing by this excla-
mation that he understood as well as his master the
significance of this arrival, that it meant that Anna
Arkadyevna, Prince Stepan's loving sister, might effect
a reconciliation between husband and wife.
" Alone, or with her husband ^ " asked Matve.
Stepan Arkadyevitch could not speak, as the barber
was engaged on his upper lip, but he lifted one finger.
Matve nodded his head toward the mirror.
"Alone. Get her room ready .-* "
" Report to Darya Aleksandrovna, and let her decide."
"To Darya Aleksandrovna.? "repeated Matve, rather
skeptically.
"Yes! report to her. And here, take the telegram,
give it to her, and do as she says."
" You want to try an experiment," was the thought
in Matve's mind ; but he only said, " I will obey! "
By this time Stepan Arkadyevitch had finished his
bath and his toilet, and was just putting on his clothes,
when Matve, stepping slowly with squeaking boots, and
with the telegram in his hand, returned to the room.
The barber was no longer there.
" Darya Aleksandrovna bade me tell you she is going
away. ...do just as he — as you — please about it,"
said Matve, with a smile lurking in his eyes. Thrust-
ing his hands into his pockets, and bending his head to
one side, he looked at his master. Stepan Arkadyevitch
was silent. Then a good-humored and rather pitiful
smile lighted up his handsome face.
ANNA KARENINA 7
" Well, Matve?" he said, shaking his head.
" It 's nothing, sir ; she will come to her senses,"
answered Matve.
" Will come to her senses ?"
" Sure she will ! "
"Do you think so? — Who is there?" asked Stepan
Arkadyevitch, hearing the rustle of a woman's dress
behind the door.
" It 's ine^' said a powerful and pleasant female voice,
and in the doorway appeared the severe and pimply
face of Matriona Filimonovna, the nurse.
"Well, what is it, Matriosha?" asked Stepan Ar-
kadyevitch, going to meet her at the door.
Notwithstanding the fact that Stepan Arkadyevitch
was entirely in the wrong as regarded his wife, and he
himself acknowledged it, still almost every one in the
house, even the old nurse, Darya Aleksandrovna's chief
friend, was on his side.
" Well, what ? " he asked gloomily.
" You go down, sir, ask her forgiveness, just once.
Perhaps the Lord will bring it out right. She is tor-
menting herself grievously, and it is pitiful to see her;
and everything in the house is going criss-cross. The
children, sir, you must have pity on them. Ask her
forgiveness, sir ! What is to be done ? No gains with-
out pains." ....
"But you see she won't accept an apology."....
" But you do your part. God is merciful, sir ; pray to
God. God is merciful."
"Very well, then, come on," said Stepan Arkadye-
vitch, suddenly turning red in the face. — "Very well, let
me have my clothes," said he, turning to Matve, and
resolutely throwing off his dressing-gown.
Matve had everything all ready for him, and stood
blowing off something invisible from the shirt stiff as a
horse-collar, and with evident satisfaction he put it over
his master's well-groomed body.
ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER III
Having dressed, Stepan Arkadyevitch sprinkled
himself with perfume, straightened the sleeves of his
shirt, according to his usual routine put into his various
pockets cigarettes, his letter-case, matches, his watch
with its double chain and locket, and, shaking out his
handkerchief, feeling clean, well-perfumed, healthy, and
physically happy in spite of his unhappiness, went out
somewhat unsteadily to the dining-room, where his cof-
fee was already waiting for him, and next the coffee his
letters and the papers from the court-house.
He read his letters. One was very disagreeable, —
from a merchant who was negotiating for the purchase
of a forest on his wife's estate. It was necessary to sell
this forest, but now nothing could be done about it until
a reconciliation was effected with his wife. Most un-
pleasant it was to think that his pecuniary interests in
this approaching transaction were complicated with his
reconciliation to his wife. And the thought that he
might be influenced by this interest, that his desire for
a reconciliation with his wife was on account of the sale
of the forest, this thought mortified him.
Having finished his letters Stepan Arkadyevitch took
up the papers from the court-house, rapidly turned over
the leaves of two deeds, made several notes with a big
pencil, and then pushing them away, took his coffee.
While he was drinking it he opened a morning journal
still damp, and began to read.
Stepan Arkadyevitch subscribed to a liberal paper, and
read it. It was not extreme in its views, but advocated
those principles which the majority held. And though
he was not really interested in science or art or politics,
he strongly adhered to such views on all these subjects
as the majority, including his paper, advocated, and he
changed them only when the majority changed them ;
or more correctly, he did not change them, but they
themselves imperceptibly changed in him.
Stepan Arkadyevitch never chose principles or opin-
ANNA KARENINA 9
ions, but these principles and opinions came to him, just
as he never chose the shape of a hat or coat, but took
those that others wore. And, living as he did in fash-
ionable society, through the necessity of some mental
activity, developing generally in a man's best years, it
was as indispensable for him to have views as to have
a hat. If there was any reason why he preferred
liberal views rather than the conservative direction which
many of his circle followed, it was not because he found
a liberal tendency more rational, but because he found it
better suited to his mode of life.
The liberal party declared that everything in Russia
was wretched; and the fact was that Stepan Arkadye-
vitch had a good many debts and was decidedly short of
money. The liberal party said that marriage was a de-
funct institution and that it needed to be remodeled, and
in fact domestic life afforded Stepan Arkadyevitch very
little pleasure, and compelled him to lie, and to pretend
what was contrary to his nature. The liberal party said,
or rather took it for granted, that religion is only a curb
on the barbarous portion of the community, and in fact
Stepan Arkadyevitch could not bear the shortest prayer
, without pain in his knees, and he could not comprehend
the necessity of all these awful and high-sounding words
about the other world when it is so very pleasant to live
in this. Moreover, Stepan Arkadyevitch, who liked a
merry jest, was sometimes fond of scandalizing a quiet
man by saying that any one who was proud of his origin
ought not to stop at Rurik and deny his earliest ancestor
— the monkey.
Thus the liberal tendency had become a habit with
Stepan Arkadyevitch, and he liked his paper, just as he
liked his cigar after dinner, because of the slight hazi-
ness which it caused in his brain. He was now reading
the leading editorial, which proved that in our day a cry is
raised, without reason, over the danger that radicalism
may swallow up all the conservative elements, and that
government ought to take measures to crush the hydra
of revolution, and that, on the contrary, " according to
our opinion, the danger lies not in this imaginary hydra
lo ANNA KARENINA
of revolution, but in the inertia of traditions which block
progress," and so on. He read through another article
on finance which made mention of Bentham and Mill,
and dropped some sharp hints for the ministry. With
his peculiar quickness of comprehension he appreciated
each point, — from whom and against whom and on
what occasion it was directed ; and this as usual afforded
him some amusement. But his satisfaction was poisoned
by the remembrance of Matriona's advice and of the un-
fortunate state of his domestic affairs. He read also
that Count von Beust was reported to have gone to
Wiesbaden, that there was to be no more gray hair ; he
read about the sale of a light carriage and a young-
woman's advertisement for a place. But these items
did not afford him quiet, ironical satisfaction as usual.
Having finished his paper, his second cup of coffee,
and a buttered roll, he stood up, shook the crumbs of the
roll from his waistcoat, and, filling his broad chest,
smiled joyfully, not because there was anything extraor-
dinarily pleasant in his mind, but the joyful smile was
caused by good digestion.
But this joyful smile immediately brought back the
memory of everything, and he sank into thought.
The voices of two children — Stepan Arkadyevitch
knew they were Grisha, his youngest boy, and Tania,
his eldest daughter — were now heard behind the door.
They were dragging something and upset it.
" I told you not to put passengers on top," cried the
little girl in English. — " Now pick them up."
" Everything is in confusion," said Stepan Arkadye-
vitch to himself. " Now here the children are, running
wild!" And going to the door, he called to them. They
dropped the little box which served them for a railway-
train, and ran to their father.
The little girl, her father's favorite, ran in boldly,
threw her arms around his neck and laughingly hugged
him, enjoying as usual the odor which exhaled from his
whiskers. Then kissing his face, reddened by his bend-
ing position and beaming with tenderness, the little girl
unclasped her hands and wanted to runaway again, but
her father held her back.
ANNA KARENINA ii
" What is mamma doing ? " he asked, caressing his
daughter's smooth, soft neck. "How are you?" he
added, smiling at the boy, who stood saluting him. He
acknowledged he had less love for the little boy, yet he
tried to be impartial. But the boy felt the difference,
and did not smile back in reply to his father's chilling
smile.
" Mamma.? She 's up," answered the little girl.
Stepan Arkadyevitch sighed. " Of course she has
spent another sleepless night," he said to himself.
" Well, is she cheerful ? "
The little girl knew that there was trouble between
her father and her mother, and that her mother could
not be cheerful, and that her father ought to know it,
and that he was dissembling when he questioned her so
lightly. And she blushed for her father. He instantly
perceived it and also turned red.
" I don't know," she said ; " she told me that we were
not to have lessons this morning but were to go with
Miss Hull over to grandmother's."
" Well, then, run along, TancJmrotcJika nioya. — Oh,
yes, wait," said he, still detaining her and smoothing her
delicate little hand.
He took down from the mantelpiece a box of candy
which he had placed there the day before, and gave
her two pieces, selecting her favorite chocolate and
vanilla.
" For Grisha .-' " she asked, pointing to the chocolate.
"Yes, yes ; " and still smoothing her soft shoulder he
kissed her on the neck and hair, and let her go.
"The carriage is at the door," said Matve, and he
added, "A woman is here — a petitioner."
" Has she been here long ? " demanded Stepan
Arkadyevitch.
" Half an hour."
" How many times have you been told to announce
visitors instantly .'' "
" I had to get your coffee ready," replied Matve in
his kind, rough voice, at which it was impossible to take
offense.
12 ANNA KARENINA
"Well, show her in quick!" said Oblonsky, frowning
with annoyance.
The petitioner, the wife of Captain Kalanin, asked
some impossible and nonsensical favor; but Stepan
Arkadyevitch, according to his custom, gave her a com-
fortable seat, listened to her story without interrupting,
and then gave her careful advice to whom and how to
make her application, and in lively and eloquent style
wrote, in his big, scrawling, but handsome and legible
hand, a note to the person who might aid her. Having
dismissed the captain's wife, Stepan Arkadyevitch took
his hat and stood for a moment trying to remember
whether he had forgotten anything. He seemed to
have forgotten nothing except what he wanted to forget
— his wife.
"Ah, yes!"
He dropped his head, and a gloomy expression came
over his handsome face.
"To go or not to go," he said to himself; and an
inner voice told him that it was not advisable to go, that
there was no way out of it except through deception,
that to straighten, to smooth out, their relations was
impossible, because it was impossible to make her
attractive and lovable again, or to make him an old man
insensible to passion. Nothing but deception and lying
could come of it, and deception and lying were opposed
to his nature.
" But it must be done sometime ; it can't remain
so always," he said, striving to gain courage. He
straightened himself, took out a cigarette, lighted it,
puffed at it two or three times, threw it into a mother-
of-pearl-lined ash-tray, went with quick steps through
the sitting-room, and opened the door into his wife's
sleeping-room.
ANNA KARENINA 13
CHAPTER IV
Darya Aleksandrovna, surrounded by all sorts of
things thrown in confusion about the room, was stand-
ing before an open chiffonnier from which she was
removing the contents. She had on a dressing-sack, and
the thin braids of her once luxuriant and beautiful hair
were pinned back. Her face was thin and sunken, and
her big eyes, protruding from her pale, worn face, had
an expression of terror. When she heard her husband's
steps she stopped in her work and, gazing at the door,
vainly tried to give her face a stern and forbidding
expression. She was conscious that she feared him and
that she dreaded the coming interview. She was in the
act of doing what she had attempted to do a dozen times
during those three days : gathering up her own effects
and those of her children to carry to her mother's
house ; and again she could not bring herself to do it, yet
now, as before, she said to herself that things could not
remain as they were, that she must take some measures to
punish him, to put him to shame, to have some revenge
on him, if only for a small part of the anguish that he
had caused her. She ctill kept saying that she should
leave him, but she felt that it was impossible ; it was
impossible because she could not cease to consider him
her husband and to love him. Moreover, she confessed
that if here in her own home she had barely succeeded
in looking after her five children, it would be far worse
where she was going with them. In the course of these
three days the youngest child had been made ill by eat-
ing some poor soup, and the rest had been obliged
to go almost dinnerless the night before. She felt that
it was impossible to leave, yet for the sake of deceiving
herself she was collecting her things and pretending
that she was going.
When she saw her husband, she thrust her hands into
a drawer of the chiffonnier, as if trying to find some-
thing, and looked at him only when he came close up
to her. But her face, to which she had intended to give
14 ANNA KARENINA
a stern and resolute expression, showed her confusion
and anguish of mind.
" Dolly," said he, in a gentle, subdued voice. He
hung his head and tried to assume a humble and sub-
missive mien, but nevertheless he was radiant with fresh
life and health. She gave him a quick glance which
took in his whole figure from head to foot, radiant with
life and health.
" Yes, he is happy and contented," she said to her-
self, .... " but I ? .... And this good nature which makes
everybody like him so well and praise him is revolting
to me ! I hate this good nature of his."
Her mouth grew firm, the muscles of her right cheek
contracted, she looked pale and nervous.
"What do you •want.''" she demanded, in a quick,
unnatural tone.
" Dolly," he repeated, with a quaver in his voice,
"Anna is coming to-day."
" Well, what is that to me } I cannot receive her,"
she cried.
" Still, it must be done, Dolly." ....
"Go away! go away! go away!" she cried, without
looking at him, and as if her words were torn from her
by physical agony.
Stepan Arkadyevitch might be calm enough as his
thoughts turned to his wife, he might have some hope
that it would all straighten itself out according to Matve's
prediction, and he might be able tranquilly to read his
morning paper and drink his coffee ; but when he saw
her tortured, suffering face, when he heard that resigned
and hopeless tone of her voice, he breathed hard, some-
thing rose in his throat, and his eyes filled with tears.
"My God! What have I done.!* for God's sake!....
See...."
He could not say another word for the sobs that
choked him.
She shut the drawer violently, and looked at him.
" Dolly, what can I say ? .... Only one thing : forgive
me. Just think ! Cannot nine years of my life pay for
a single moment, a moment .... "
ANNA KARENINA 15
She let her eyes fall, and listened to what he was
going to say, as if beseeching him in some way to per-
suade her of his innocence.
" A single moment of temptation," he ended, and was
going to continue ; but at that word, Dolly's lips again
closed tight as if from physical pain, and again the mus-
cles of her right cheek contracted.
" Go away, go away from here," she cried still more
impetuously, " and don't speak to me of your tempta
tions and your wretched conduct."
She attempted to leave the room, but she almost feii,
and was obliged to lean upon a chair for support.
Oblonsky's face grew melancholy, his lips trembled,
and his eyes filled with tears.
" Dolly," said he, almost sobbing, " for God's sake
think of the children. They are not to blame ; I am
the one to blame. Punish me ! Tell me how I can
atone for my fault I am ready to do anything. I
am guilty ! No words can tell how guilty I am. But,
Dolly, forgive me ! "
She sat down. He heard her quick, hard breathing,
and his soul was filled with pity for her. She tried
several times to speak, but could not utter a word. He
waited.
" You think of the children, because you like to play
with them ; but I think of them, too, and I know what
they have lost," said she, repeating one of the phrases
that during the last three days she had many times
repeated to herself.
She had used the familiar tin (thou), and he looked
at her with gratitude, and made a movement as if to
take her hand, but she turned from him with abhor-
rence.
" I have consideration for my children, and therefore
I would do all in the world to save them ; but I do not
myself know how I can best save them : by taking them
from their father, or by leaving them with a father who
is a libertine, — yes, a libertine ! .... Now tell me after
this, — this that has happened, can we live together }
Is it possible.? Tell me, is it possible?" she demanded,
i6 ANNA KARENINA
raising her voice. "When my husband, the father of
my children, has a love-affair with their governess .... "
" .... But what is to be done about it .'' what is to be
done ? " said he, interrupting with broken voice, not
knowing what he said, and letting his head sink lower
and lower.
"You are revolting to me, you are insulting," she
cried, with increasing anger. " Your tears are water !
You never loved me ; you have no heart, no honor.
You are abominable, revolting, and henceforth you are
a stranger to me, — yes, a perfect stranger," and she
repeated with spiteful anger this word "stranger" which
was so terrible to her own ears.
He looked at her, and the anger expressed in her face
alarmed and surprised him. He had no realizing sense
that his pity exasperated his wife. She saw that he felt
sympathy for her, but not love. " No, she hates me, she
will not forgive me," he said to himself.
" This is terrible, terrible ! " he cried.
At this moment one of the children in the next room,
having apparently had a fall, began to cry. Darya
Aleksandrovna listened and her face suddenly softened.
She seemed to collect her thoughts for a few seconds,
as if she did not know where she was and what was
happening to her, then, quickly rising, she hastened to
the door.
"At any rate she loves my child," thought Oblonsky,
who had noticed the change in her face as she heard
the little one's cry. " My child ; how then can she hate
me.?"
" Dolly ! just one word more," he said, following her.
" If you follow me, I will call the domestics, the
children ! Let them all know that you are infamous !
I leave this very day, and you may live here with your
paramour."
And she went out and slammed the door.
Stepan Arkadyevitch sighed, wiped his face, and
softly left the room.
" Matve says this can be settled ; but how ? I don't
see the possibility. Akh ! akh ! how terrible ! and
ANNA KARENINA 17
how foolishly she shrieked," said he to himself, as he
recalled her cry and the words "infamous" and "para-
mour
" Perhaps the chambermaids heard her ! horribly
foolish, horribly ! "
Stepan Arkadyevitch stood by himself a few seconds,
rubbed his eyes, sighed, and then, throwing out his
chest, left the room.
It was Friday, and in the dining-room the German
clock-maker was winding the clock. Stepan Arka-
dyevitch remembered a joke that he had made about
this punctilious German clock-maker, to the effect that
" he must have been wound up himself for a lifetime for
the purpose of winding clocks," and he smiled. Stepan
Arkadyevitch loved a good joke. "Perhaps it will
straighten itself out. That 's a good little phrase !
straighten itself out," he thought ; " I must tell that."
"Matve!" he shouted; and when the old servant
appeared, he said, " Have Marya put the best room in
order for Anna Arkadyevna."
"Very well."
Stepan Arkadyevitch took his fur coat, and started
down the steps.
" Shall you dine at home ? " asked Matve, as he
escorted him down.
" That depends. Here, take this if you need to spend
anything," said he, taking out a bill of ten rubles from
his pocket-book. "That will be enough."
" Whether it is enough or not, it will have to do,"
said Matve, as he shut the carriage-door and went up
the steps.
Meantime, Darya Aleksandrovna, having pacified the
child, and knowing by the sound of the carriage that he
was gone, came back to her room. This was her sole
refuge from the domestic troubles that besieged her as
soon as she went out. Even during the short time that
she had been in the nursery, the English maid and
Matriona Filimonovna asked her all sorts of questions
demanding immediate attention, questions which she
alone could answer, — what clothes should they put on
i8 ANNA KARENINA
the children for their walk ? should they give them
milk ? should they send for another cook ?
" Akh ! leave me alone, leave me alone ! " she cried,
and, hastening back to the chamber, she sat down in
the place where she had been talking with her husband.
Then, clasping her thin hands, on whose fingers the rings
would scarcely stay, she reviewed the whole conversation.
"He has gone! But has he broken with her?" she
asked herself. " Does he still continue to see her }
Why did n't I ask him } No, no, we cannot live together.
Even if we continue to live in the same house, we are
only strangers, strangers forever ! " she repeated, with
a strong emphasis on the word that hurt her so cruelly.
"How I loved him! my God, how I loved him!..,.
How I loved him ! and even now do I not love him }
Do I not love him even more than before .'' that is the
most terrible thing," she was beginning to say, but she
did not finish out her thought, because Matriona Fili-
monovna put her head in at the door. " Give orders to
send for my brother," said she ; " he will get dinner. If
you don't, it will be like yesterday, when the children
did not have anything to eat for six hours."
" Very good, I will come and give the order. Have
you sent for some fresh milk .-* "
And Darya Aleksandrovna entered into her daily
tasks, and in them forgot her sorrow for the time being.
CHAPTER V
Stepan Arkadyevitch had done well at school, by
reason of his excellent natural gifts, but he was lazy and
mischievous, and consequently had been at the foot of his
class ; but, in spite of his irregular habits, his low rank in
the Service, and his youth, he, nevertheless, held an im-
portant salaried position as nachalnik, or president of
one of the courts in Moscow. This place he had secured
through the good offices of his sister Anna's husband,
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch Karenin, who occupied one of
the most influential positions in the ministry of which he
ANNA KARENINA 19
was a member. But even if Karenin had not been able
to get this place for his brother-in-law, a hundred other
people — brothers, sisters, cousins, second cousins, uncles,
aunts — would have got it for Stiva Oblonsky, or some
place as good, together with the six thousand rubles'
salary which he needed for his establishment, his affairs
being somewhat out of order in spite of his wife's con-
siderable fortune.
Half the people of Moscow and St. Petersburg were
relatives or friends of Stepan Arkadyevitch ; he was
born into the society of the rich and powerful of this
world. A third of the older officials attached to the
court and in government employ had been friends of his
father, and had known him from the time when he wore
petticoats ; a second third addressed him familiarly in
the second person singular ; the others were " hail fel-
lows well met." He had, therefore, as his friends, all
those whose function it is to dispense earthly blessings
in the shape of places, leases, concessions, and the like,
and who could not neglect their own. And so Oblonsky
had no special difficulty in obtaining an excellent place.
All he had to do was not to shirk, not to be jealous, not
to be quarrelsome, not to be thin-skinned, and he never
gave way to these faults, because of his natural good
temper. It would have seemed ridiculous to him if he
had been told that he could not have any salaried place
that he wanted, because it did not seem to him that he
demanded anything extraordinary. He asked only for
what his companions were obtaining, and he felt that he
was as capable as any of them of performing the duties
of such a position.
Stepan Arkadyevitch was liked by every one for his
good and amiable character and his unimpeachable
honesty. There was moreover something in his brilliant
and attractive personality, in his bright, sparkling eyes,
his black brows, his hair, his vivid coloring, which exer-
cised a strong physical influence as of friendliness and
gayety on those who came in touch with him.
" Aha, Stiva ! Oblonsky ! Here he is ! " people
would generally say, with a smile of pleasure. Even if
ao ANNA KARENINA
it happened that the results of meeting him were not
particularly gratifying, nevertheless people were just as
glad to meet him the second day and the third.
After filling for three years the office of nachalnik of
one of the chief judiciary positions in Moscow, Stepan Ar-
kadyevitch had gained, not only the friendship, but also
the respect of his colleagues, both those above and those
below him in station, as well as of all who had had dealings
with him. The principal qualities that had gained him
this universal esteem were, first, his extreme indulgence
for people, and this was founded on his knowledge of his
own weaknesses ; secondly, his absolute liberality, which
was not the liberalism which he read about in the news-
papers, but that which was in his blood, and caused him
to be agreeable to every one, in whatever station in life ;
and thirdly and principally, his perfect indifference to
the business which he transacted, so that he never lost
his temper, and therefore never made mistakes.
As soon as he reached his tribunal, Stepan Arkadye-
vitch, escorted by the solemn Swiss who bore his port-
folio, went to his little private office, put on his uniform,
and proceeded to the court-room. The clerks and other
employees all stood up, bowing eagerly and respectfully.
Stepan Arkadyevitch, as usual, hastened to his place,
shook hands with his colleagues, and took his seat. He
got off some pleasantry and made some remark suitable
to the occasion, and then opened the session. No one
better than he understood how far to go within the limits
of freedom, frankness, and that official dignity which is
so useful in the expedition of official business. A
clerk came with papers, and, with the free and yet re-
spectful air common to all who surrounded Stepan
Arkadyevitch, spoke in the familiarly liberal tone which
Stepan Arkadyevitch had introduced : —
" We have at last succeeded in obtaining reports from the
Government of Penza. Here they are, if you care to ...."
" So we have them at last," said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
touching the document with his finger. " Now, then,
gentlemen ...."
And the proceedings began.
ANNA KARENINA 21
" If they knew," he said to himself, as he bent his head
with an air of importance while the report was read, " how
much their president, only half an hour since, looked like
a naughty school-boy!" and a gleam of amusement came
into his eyes as he listened to the report.
The session generally lasted till two o'clock without
interruption, and was followed by recess and luncheon.
The clock had not yet struck two, when the great glass
doors of the court-room were suddenly thrown open,
and some one entered. All the members, glad of any
diversion, looked round from where they sat under the
Emperor's portrait and behind the zertsdlo, or procla-
mation-table ; but the doorkeeper instantly ejected the
intruder, and shut the door on him.
After the business was read through, Stepan Arkadye-
vitch arose, stretched himself, and in a spirit of sacri-
fice to the liberalism of the time took out his cigarette,
while still in the court-room, and then passed into his
private office. Two of his colleagues, the aged veteran
Nikitin, and the chamberlain Grinevitch, followed him.
" There '11 be time enough to finish after luncheon,"
said Oblonsky.
"How we are rushing through with it!" replied
Nikitin.
" This Famin must be a precious rascal," said Grine-
vitch, alluding to one of the characters in the affair
which they had beqn investigating.
Stepan Arkadyevitch knitted his brows at Grinevitch's
words, as if to signify that it was not the right thing to
form snap judgments, and he made no reply.
" Who was it came into the court-room .?" he asked of
the doorkeeper.
'' Some one who entered without permission, your
excellency, while my back was turned. He asked to
see you : I said, * When the court adjourns, then .... ' "
" Where is he .? "
" Probably in the vestibule ; he ,was there just now.
Ah ! there he is," said the doorkeeper, pointing to a
solidly built, broad-shouldered man with curly beard,
who, without taking off his sheepskin cap, was lightly
21 ANNA KARENINA
and quickly running up the well-worn steps of the stone
staircase. A lean chinovnik, on his way down, with a
portfolio under his arm, stopped to look, with some indig-
nation, at the newcomer's feet, and turned to Oblonsky
with a glance of inquiry. Stepan Arkadyevitch stood
at the top of the staircase, and his bright, good-natured
face, set off by the embroidered collar of his uniform,
was still more radiant when he recognized the visitor.
" Here he is ! Levin, at last," he cried, with a friendly,
ironical smile, as he looked at his approaching friend.
" What ! you got tired of waiting for me, and have
come to find me in this den } " he went on to say, not
satisfied with pressing his hand, but kissing him affec-
tionately. " Have you been in town long ? "
" I just got here, and was in a hurry to see you," said
Levin, looking about him timidly, and at the same time
with a fierce and anxious expression.
"Well, come into my office," said Stepan Arka-
dyevitch, who was aware of his visitor's egotistic sensi-
tiveness, and, taking him by the hand, he led him along
as if he were conducting him through manifold dangers.
Stepan Arkadyevitch addressed almost all his acquain-
tances with the familiar "thou," — old men of three-
score, young men of twenty, actors and ministers,
merchants and generals, so that there were very many
of these familiarly addressed acquaintances from both
extremes of the social scale, and they would have been
astonished to know that through Oblonsky they had
something in common. He thus addressed all with
whom he had drunk champagne, and he had drunk
champagne with every one, and so when in the presence
of his subordinates he met any of his shameful intimates,
as he jestingly called some of his acquaintances, his
characteristic tact was sufficient to diminish the dis-
agreeable impressions that they might have.
Levin was not one of his shameful intimates, but
Oblonsky instinctively felt that Levin might think he
would not like to make a display of their intimacy be-
fore his subordinates, and so he hastened to take him
into his private office.
ANNA KARENINA 23
Levin was about the same age as Oblonsky, and their
intimacy was not based on champagne alone. Levin
was a friend and companion from early boyhood. In
spite of the difference in their characters and their
tastes, they were fond of each other as friends are who
have grown up together. And yet, as often happens among
men who have chosen different spheres of activity, each,
while approving the work of the other, really despised it.
Each believed his own mode of life to be the only rational
way of living, while that led by his friend was only illusion.
At the sight of Levin, Oblonsky could not repress a
slight ironical smile. How many times had he seen him in
Moscow just in from the country, where he had been doing
something, though Oblonsky did not know exactly what
and scarcely took any interest in it. Levin always came
to Moscow anxious, hurried, a trifle annoyed, and vexed
because he was annoyed, and generally bringing with
him entirely new and unexpected views of things.
Stepan Arkadyevitch laughed at this and yet liked it.
In somewhat the same way Levin despised the city
mode of his friend's life, and his official employment,
which he considered trifling, and made sport of it. But
the difference between them lay in this : that Oblonsky,
doing what every one else was doing, laughed self-con-
fidently and good-naturedly, while Levin, because he was
not assured in his own mind, sometimes lost his temper.
" We have been expecting you for some time," said
Stepan Arkadyevitch, as he entered his office, and let
go his friend's hand to show that the danger was past.
" I am very, very glad to see you," he continued. " How
goes it .-* how are you .'' Wheo did you come ? "
Levin was silent, and looked at the unknown faces of
Oblonsky's two colleagues, and especially at the elegant
Grinevitch's hand, with its long, white fingers and their
long, yellow, and pointed nails, and his cuffs, with their
huge, gleaming cuff-buttons. It was evident that his
hands absorbed all of his attention and allowed him to
think of nothing else. Oblonsky instantly noticed this,
and smiled.
" Ah, yes," said he, " allow me to make you acquainted
24 ANNA KARENINA
with my colleagues, Filipp Ivanuitch Nikitin, Mikhail
Stanislavitch Grinevitch ; " then turning to Levin, "A
landed proprietor, a rising man, a member of the
zemstsvo, and a gymnast who can lift two hundred
pounds with one hand, a raiser of cattle, and huntsman,
and my friend, Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin, the
brother of SergyeT Ivanuitch Koznuishef."
" Very happy," said the little old man. *' I have the
honor of knowing your brother, Sergyei' Ivanuitch,"
said Grinevitch, extending his delicate hand with its long
nails.
Levin frowned ; he coldly shook hands, and turned
to Oblonsky. Although he had much respect for his
half-brother, a writer universally known in Russia, it
was none the less unpleasant for him to be addressed,
not as Konstantin Levin, but as the brother of the famous
Koznuishef.
" No, I am no longer a worker in the zemstsvo. I
have quarreled with everybody, and I don't go to the
assemblies," said he to Oblonsky.
" This is a sudden change," said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
with a smile. " But how .-' why .-' "
" It is a long story, and I will tell it some other time,"
replied Levin ; but he nevertheless went on to say, " To
make a long story short, I was convinced that no action
amounts to anything, or can amount to anything, in
our provincial assembles." He spoke as if some one had
insulted him. " On the one hand, they try to play Parlia-
ment, and I am not young enough and not old enough
to amuse myself with toys ; and, on the other hand," —
he hesitated, — " this serves the district ring to make a
little money. There used to be guardianships, judg-
ments ; but now we have the zemstsvo, not in the way
of bribes, but in the way of unearned salaries."
He spoke hotly, as if some one present had attacked
his views.
" Aha ! here you are, I see, in a new phase, on the
conservative side," said Stepan Arkadyevitch. " Well,
we '11 speak about this by and by."
"Yes, by and by. But I want to see you particu-
ANNA KARENINA 25
larly," said Levin, looking with disgust at Grinevitch's
hand.
Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled imperceptibly. " Did n't
you say that you would never again put on European
clothes ? " he asked, examining his friend's new suit,
evidently made by a French tailor. " Indeed, I see ;
'tis a new phase."
Levin suddenly grew red, not as grown men grow
red, without perceiving it, but as boys blush, conscious
that they are ridiculous by reason of their bashfulness,
and therefore ashamed and made to turn still redder till
the tears almost come. It gave his intelligent, manly
face such a strange appearance that Oblonsky turned
away and refrained from looking at him.
"But where can we meet.'' You see it is very,
very necessary for me to have a talk with you," said
Levin.
Oblonsky seemed to reflect.
" How is this .'' We will go and have luncheon at
Gurin's, and we can talk there. At three o'clock I
shall be free."
*' No," answered Levin after a moment's thought;
** I 've got to take a drive."
"Well, then, let us dine together."
" Dine ? But I have nothing very particular to say,
only two words, to ask a question ; afterward we can
gossip."
"In that case, speak your two words now; we will
chat while we are at dinner."
" These two words are .... however, it 's nothing very
important."
His face suddenly assumed a hard expression, due
to his efforts in conquering his timidity. " What are
the Shcherbatskys doing .'' — just as they used to .-*"
Stepan Arkadyevitch, who had long known that
Levin was in love with his sister-in-law Kitty, almost
perceptibly smiled, and his eyes flashed gayly. " You
said ' two words ' ; but I cannot answer in two words,
because .... excuse me a moment."
The secretary came in at this juncture with his
26 ANNA KARENINA
familiar but respectful bearing, and with that modest
assumption characteristic of all secretaries that he knew
more about business than his superior. He brought
some papers to Oblonsky ; and, under the form of a
question, he attempted to explain some difficulty. With-
out waiting to hear the end of the explanation, Stepan
Arkadyevitch laid his hand affectionately on the secre-
tary's arm.
" No, do as I asked you to," said he, tempering his
remark with a smile ; and, having briefly given his own
explanation of the matter, he pushed away the papers,
and said, " Do it so, I beg of you, Zakhar Nikititch."
The secretary went off confused. Levin during this
scene with the secretary had entirely recovered from
his embarrassment, and was standing with both arms
resting on a chair ; on his face was an ironical expres-
sion.
" I don't understand, I don't understand," said he.
"What don't you understand.''" asked Oblonsky,
smiling, and taking out a cigarette. He was expecting
some sort of strange outbreak from Levin.
" I don't understand what you are up to," said Levin,
shrugging his shoulders. " How can you do this sort
of thing seriously ? "
"Why not.?"
" Why, because it is doing nothing."
" You think so .'' We are overwhelmed with work."
" On paper ! Well, yes, you have a special gift for
such things," added Levin.
"You mean that I .... there is something that I lack.-*"
" Perhaps so, yes. However, I cannot help admiring
your high and mighty ways, and rejoicing that I have
for a friend a man of such importance. But, you
did not answer my question," he added, making a des-
perate effort to look Oblonsky full in the face.
" Now that 's very good, very good ! Go ahead, and
you will succeed. 'T is well that you have eight thou-
sand acres of land in the district of Karazinsk, such
muscles, and the complexion of a little girl of twelve;
but you will catch up with us all the same Yes, as to
ANNA KARENINA 27
what you asked me. There is no change, but I am
sorry that it has been so long since you were in town."
" Why ? " asked Levin in alarm.
" Well, it 's nothing," replied Oblonsky; "we will talk
things over. What has brought you now especially.-'"
" Akh ! we will speak also of that by and by," said
Levin, again reddening to his very ears.
"Very good. I understand you," said Stepan Arka-
dyevitch. "You see, I should have taken you home
with me to dinner, but my wife is not well to-day. If
you want to see tliem, you will find them at the Zoologi-
cal Gardens from four to five. Kitty is skating. You
go there; I will join you later, and we will get dinner
together somewhere."
" Excellent. Da svidanya ! "
" Look here — you see I know you — you will forget
all about it, or will suddenly be starting back to your
home in the country," cried Stepan Arkady evitch, with
a laugh.
" No, truly I won't."
Levin left the room, and only when he had passed
the door realized that he had forgotten to salute Oblon-
sky's colleagues.
" That must be a gentleman of great energy/' said
Grinevitch, after Levin had taken his departure.
"Yes, batyushka," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, throw-
ing his head back. " He is a likely fellow. Eight
thousand acres in the Karazinsky district ! He has
a future before him, and how vigorous he is! He is
not like the rest of us."
" What have you to complain about, Stepan Arkadye-
vitch .-' " ^
" Well, things are bad, bad," replied Stepan Arkadye-
vitch, sighing heavily.
28 ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER VI
When Oblonsky asked Levin for what special rea-
son he had come, Levin grew red in the face, and he
was angry with himself because he grew red ; but how
could he have replied, ** I have come to ask the hand of
your sister-in-law " ? Yet he had come for that single
purpose.
The Levin and the Shcherbatsky families, belonging
to the old nobility of Moscow, had always been on inti-
mate and friendly terms. During Levin's student life
the bond had grown stronger. He and the young
Prince Shcherbatsky, the brother of Dolly and Kitty,
had taken their preparatory studies, and gone through
the university together. At that time Levin was a fre-
quent visitor at the Shcherbatskys, and was in love with
the house. Strange as it may seem, he was in love with
the house itself, with the family, especially with the femi-
nine portion. Konstantin Levin could not remember his
mother, and his only sister was much older than he
was, so that for the first time he found in the house
of the Shcherbatskys that charming cultivated life so
peculiar to the old nobility, and of which the death of
his parents had deprived him. All the members of
this family, but especially the ladies, seemed to him
to be surrounded with a mysterious and poetic halo.
Not only did he fail to discover any faults in them, but
underneath this poetic and mysterious halo surrovmding
them, he saw the loftiest sentiments and the most ideal
perfections. Why these three young ladies were obliged
to speak French and English every day ; why they had
to take turns in playing for hours at a time on the piano,
the sounds of which floated up to their brother's room,
where the young students were at work ; why professors
of French literature, of music, of drawing, of dancing,
came to give them lessons ; why the three young
ladies, at a certain hour, accompanied by Mile. Linon,
drove out in their carriage to the TverskoT Boulevard,
wearing satin shubkas, Dolly's very long, Natalie's
ANNA KARENINA 29
of half length, and Kitty's very short, showing her
shapely ankles and close-fitting red stockings ; and why
when they went to the Tverskoi" Boulevard they had to
be accompanied by a lackey with a gilt cockade on his
hat, — all these things and many others v/ere absolutely
incomprehensible to him. But he felt that all that
took place in this mysterious sphere was beautiful, and
he was in love especially with this mystery of accom-
plishment.
While he was a student he almost fell in love with
Dolly, the eldest ; but she soon married Oblonsky ; then
he began to be in love with the second. It was as if he
felt it to be a necessity to love one of the three, only he
could not decide which one he liked the best. But Na-
talie entered society, and soon married the diplomat,
Lvof. Kitty was only a child when Levin left the uni-
versity. Young Shcherbatsky joined the fleet, and was
drowned in the Baltic ; and Levin's relations with the
family became more distant, in spite of his friendship
with Oblonsky. At the beginning of the winter, how-
ever, after a year's absence in the country, he had met
the Shcherbatskys again, and learned for the first time
which of the three he was destined really to love.
It would seem as if there could be nothing simpler for
a young man of thirty-two, of good family, possessed of
a fair fortune, and likely to be regarded as an eligible
suitor, than to ask the young Princess Shcherbatskaya
in marriage, and probably Levin would have been ac-
cepted as an excellent match. But he was in love, and
consequently it seemed to him Kitty was a creature so
accomplished, her superiority was so above everything
earthly, and he himself was such an earthly insignificant
being, that he was unwilling to admit, even in thought,
that others or Kitty herself would regard him as worthy
of her.
Having spent two months in Moscow, as in a dream,
meeting Kitty almost every day in society, which he al-
lowed himself to frequent on account of her, he suddenly
concluded that this alliance was impossible, and took his
departure for the country. Levin's conclusion that it
30 ANNA KARENINA
was impossible was reached by reasoning that in her
parents' eyes he was not a suitor sufficiently advanta-
geous or suitable for the beautiful Kitty, and that Kitty
herself could not love him. In her parents' eyes, he
was engaged in no definite line of activity, and at his
age had no position in the world, while his comrades
were colonels or staff-officers, distinguished professors,
bank directors, railway officials, presidents of tribunals
like Oblonsky ; but he — and he knew very well how he
was regarded by his friends — was only a pomyeshchik,
or country proprietor, busy with breeding of cows,
hunting woodcock, and building farmhouses : in other
words, he was an incapable youth who had accomplished
nothing, and who, in the eyes of society, was doing just
what men do who have made a failure.
Surely, the mysterious, charming Kitty could not love
a man so ill-favored, dull, and good-for-nothing as he
felt that he was. Moreover, his former relations with
her, consequent upon his friendship with her brother,
were those of a grown man with a child, and seemed to
him only an additional obstacle to love.
It was possible, he thought, for a girl to have a friend-
ship for a good, homely man, such as he considered
himself to be ; but if he is to be loved with a love such
as he felt for Kitty, he must be good-looking, and above
all, a man of distinction.
He had heard that women often fall in love with ill-
favored, stupid men, but he did not believe that such
would be his own experience, just as he felt that it would
be impossible for him to love a woman who was not
beautiful, brilliant, and poetic.
But, having spent two months in the solitude of the
country, he became convinced that this was not one of
his youthful passions, that the state of his feelings al-
lowed him not a moment of rest, and that he could not
live without settling this mighty question — whether she
would, or would not, be his wife ; that his despair arose
wholly from his imagination, and that he had no absolute
certainty that she would refuse him.
He had now returned to Moscow with the firm inten-
ANNA KARENINA 31
tion of offering himself and of marrying her if she would
accept him. If not .... he could not think what would
become of him.
CHAPTER VII
Coming to Moscow by the morning train, Levin had
stopped at the house of his half-brother, Koznuishef.
After making his toilet, he went to the library with the
intention of telling him why he had come, and asking
his advice ; but his brother was not alone. He was
talking with a famous professor of philosophy who had
come up from Kharkof expressly to settle a vexed
question which had arisen between them on some very
important philosophical subject. The professor was
waging a bitter war on materialists, and Sergei" Koznui-
shef followed his argument with interest ; and, having
read the professor's latest article, he had written him a
letter expressing some objections. He blamed the pro-
fessor for having made too large concessions to the
materialists, and the professor had come on purpose to
explain what he meant. The conversation turned on
the question then fashionable : Is there a dividing line
between the psychical and the physiological phenomena
of man's action ? and where is it to be found .''
Sergei Ivanovitch welcomed his brother with the
same coldly benevolent smile which he bestowed on
all, and, after introducing him to the professor, con-
tinued the discussion.
The professor, a small man with spectacles, and
narrow forehead, stopped long enough to return Levin's
bow, and then continued without noticing him further.
Levin sat down to wait till the professor should go, but
soon began to feel interested in the discussion.
He had read in the reviews articles on this subject, but
he had read them with only that general interest which
a man who has studied the natural sciences at the uni-
versity is likely to take in their development ; but he
had never appreciated the connection that exists between
these learned questions of the origin of man, of reflex
32 ANNA KARENINA
action, of biology, of sociology, and those touching the
significance of life and of death for himself, which had
of late been more and more engaging his attention.
As he listened to the discussion between his brother
and the professor, he noticed that they agreed to a cer-
tain kinship between scientific and psychological ques-
tions, that several times they almost took up this subject ;
but each time that they came near what seemed to him
the most important question of all, they instantly took
pains to avoid it, and sought refuge in the domain of
subtile distinctions, explanations, citations, references to
authorities, and he found it hard to understand what
they were talking about.
" I cannot accept the theory of Keis," said Sergef
Ivanovitch in his characteristically elegant and correct
diction and expression, " and I cannot at all admit that
my whole conception of the exterior world is derived
from my sensations. The most fundamental concept of
being does not arise from the senses, nor is there any
special organ by which this conception is produced."
" Yes; but Wurst and Knaust and Pripasof will reply
that your consciousness of existence is derived from an
accumulation of all sensations, that it is only the result
of sensations. Wurst himself says explicitly that where
sensation does not exist, there is no consciousness of
existence."
" I will say, on the other hand .... " began Sergei Ivan-
ovitch
But here Levin noticed that, just as they were about
to touch the root of the whole matter, they again steered
clear of it, and he determined to put the following ques-
tion to the professor.
" Suppose my sensations ceased, if my body were
dead, would further existence be possible .'' "
The professor, with some vexation, and, as it were,
intellectual anger at this interruption, looked at the
strange questioner as if he took him for a clown
rather than a philosopher, and turned his eyes to
Sergei" Ivanovitch as if to ask, "What does this man
mean i
ANNA KARENINA 33
But Sergeif Ivanovitch, who was not nearly so one-
sided and zealous a partisan as the professor, and who
had sufficient health of mind both to answer the pro-
fessor and to see the simple and natural point of view
from which the question was asked, smiled and said : —
" We have not yet gained the right to answer that
question."....
"Our capacities are not sufficient," continued the pro-
fessor, taking up the thread of his argument. " No, I
insist upon this, that if, as Pripasof says plainly, sensa-
tions are based upon impressions, we cannot too closely
distinguish between the two notions."
Levin did not listen any longer, and waited until the
professor took his departure.
CHAPTER VIII
When the professor was gone, Sergeif Ivanovitch
turned to his brother.
" I am very glad to see you. Shall you stay long }
How are things on the estate .-' "
Levin knew that his elder brother took little interest
in the affairs of the estate, and only asked out of cour-
tesy ; and so in reply he merely spoke of the sale of
wheat, and the money he had received.
It had been his intention to speak with his brother
about his marriage project, and to ask his advice ; but,
after the conversation with the professor, and in conse-
quence of the involuntarily patronizing tone in which his
brother had asked about their affairs, — for their real estate
had never been divided and Levin managed it as a whole,
— he felt that he could not begin to talk about his proj-
ect of marriage. He had an instinctive feeling that his
brother would not look upon it as he should wish him to.
" How is it with the zemstvo .'' " asked Sergei Ivan-
ovitch, who took a lively interest in these provincial
assemblies, to which he attributed great importance.
" Fact is, I don't know.... "
" What ! aren't you a member of the assembly ? "
34 ANNA KARENINA
"No, I am no longer a member: I have not been
going and don't intend to go any more," said Levin.
"It's too bad," murmured Sergef Ivanovitch, frown-
ing.
Levin, in justification, described what had taken place
at the meetings of his district assembly.
" But it is forever thus," exclaimed Sergef Ivanovitch,
interrupting. " We Russians are always like this. Pos-
sibly it is one of our good traits that we are willing to
see our faults, but we exaggerate them ; we take delight
in irony, which comes natural to our language. If such
rights as we have, if our provincial institutions, were
given to any other people in Europe, — Germans or
English, — I tell you, they would derive liberty from
them; but we only turn them into sport."
"But what is to be done.-'" asked Levin, penitently.
" It was my last attempt. I tried with all my heart ; I
cannot do it. I am helpless."
"Not helpless!" said SergeT Ivanovitch; "you did
not look at the matter in the right light."
" Perhaps not," replied Levin, in a melancholy tone.
" Do you know, brother Nikolai has been in town
again .'' "
Nikolai was Konstantin Levin's own brother, and
Sergef Ivanovitch's half-brother, standing between them
in age. He was a ruined man, who had wasted the
larger part of his fortune, had mingled with the strangest
and most disgraceful society, and had quarreled with
his brothers.
"What did you say .'' " cried Levin, startled. "How
did you know.? "
" Prokofi saw him in the street."
" Here in Moscow .<* Where is he ? " and Levin stood
up, as if with the intention of instantly going to find
him.
" I am sorry that I told you this," said Sergei Ivan-
ovitch, shaking his head when he saw his younger
brother's emotion. " I sent out to find where he was
staying ; and I sent him his letter of credit on Trubin,
the amount of which I paid. This is what he wrote me
ANNA KARENINA 35
in reply," and Sergei Ivanovitch handed his brother a
note which he took from a letter-press.
Levin read the letter, which was written in the
strange hand which he knew so well : —
I humbly beg to be left in peace. It is all that I ask from
my dear brothers. Nikolai Levin.
Konstantin, without lifting his head, stood motionless
before his brother with the letter in his hand.
The desire arose in his heart now to forget his un-
fortunate brother, and the consciousness that it would
be wrong.
" He evidently wants to insult me," continued Serge'f
Ivanovitch ; " but that is impossible. I wish with all
my soul that I might help him, and yet I know that
I shall not succeed."
" Yes, yes," replied Levin. " I understand, and I
appreciate your treatment of him ; but I am going to
him."
" Go, by all means, if it will give you any pleasure,"
said Sergef Ivanovitch ; " but I would not advise it.
Not on my account, because I fear that he might
make a quarrel between us, but, on your own account,
I advise you not to go. He can't be helped. How-
ever, do as you think best."
" Perhaps he can't be helped, but I feel especially
at this moment .... this is quite another reason I
feel that I could not be contented...."
"Well, I don't understand you," said SergeY Ivano-
vitch; "but one thing I do understand," he added:
"this is a lesson in humility. Since brother Nikolai"
has become the man he is, I look with greater indul-
gence on what people call 'abjectness.' .... Do you
know what he has done .-' " ....
" Akh ! it is terrible, terrible," replied Levin.
Having obtained from his brother's servant NikolaY's
address. Levin set out to find him, but on second thought
changed his mind, and postponed his visit till evening.
Before all, he must decide the question that had brought
S6 ANNA KARENINA
him to Moscow, in order that his mind might be free.
He had therefore gone directly to Oblonsky; and,
having learned where he could find the Shcherbatskys,
he went where he was told that he would meet Kitty.
CHAPTER IX
About four o'clock Levin dismissed his izvoshchik
at the entrance of the Zoological Garden, and with
beating heart followed the path that led to the ice-
mountains and the skating-pond, for he knew that he
should find Kitty there, having seen the Shcherbatskys'
carriage at the gate.
It was a clear frosty day. At the entrance of the
garden were drawn up rows of carriages and sleighs ;
hired drivers and policemen stood on the watch. Hosts
of fashionable people, with their hats gayly glancing
in the bright sunlight, were gathered around the doors
and on the paths cleared of snow, among the pretty
Russian cottages with their carved balconies. The an-
cient birch trees of the garden, their thick branches
all laden with snow, seemed clothed in new and solemn
chasubles.
Levin followed the foot-path, saying to himself : —
" Be calm ! there is no reason for being agitated !
What do you desire } what ails you ? Be quiet, you fool ! "
Thus Levin addressed his heart. And the more he
endeavored to calm his agitation, the more he was over-
come by it, till at last he could hardly breathe. An
acquaintance spoke to him as he passed, but Levin did
not even notice who it was. He drew near the ice-
mountains, on which creaked the ropes that let down
the sledges and drew them up again. The sleds flew
with a rush down the slopes, and there was a tumult
of happy voices.
He went a few steps farther, and before him spread
the skating-ground ; and among the skaters he soon
discovered /ler. He knew that he was near her from
the joy and terror that seized his heart. She was
ANNA KARENINA 37
standing at the opposite end of the pond engaged in
conversation with a lady ; and nothing either in her
toilet or in her position was remarkable, but for Levin
she stood out from the rest like a rose-bush among
nettles. Everything was made radiant by her. She
was the smile that lightened the whole place.
" Do I dare to go and meet her on the ice ? " he
asked himself. The place where she was seemed like
an unapproachable sanctuary, and for a moment he
almost turned to go away again, so full of awe it was.
He had to master himself by a supreme effort to think
that, as she was surrounded by people of every sort,
he had as much right as the rest to go on there and
skate. So he went down on the ice, not letting him-
self look long at her, as if she were the sun ; but he
saw her, as he saw the sun, even though he did not
look at her.
On this day and at this hour, the ice formed a com-
mon meeting-ground for people of one clique, all of
whom were well acquainted. There were also masters
in the art of skating, who came to show off their
skill ; others were learning to skate by holding on
chairs, and making awkward and distressing gestures ;
there were young lads and old men, who skated as a
gymnastic exercise : all seemed to Levin to be the
happy children of fortune because they were near
Kitty.
And all these skaters, with apparently perfect un-
concern, glided around her, came close to her, even
spoke to her, and with absolute indifference to her
enjoyed themselves, making the most of the good
skating and splendid weather.
Nikolai Shcherbatsky, Kitty's cousin, in short jacket
and knickerbockers, was seated on a bench with his
skates on, and seeing Levin, he cried : —
" Ah ! the best skater in Russia ! Have you been
here long } The ice is first-rate ! Put on your skates
quick ! "
" I have not my skates with me," replied Levin, sur-
prised at this freedom and audacity in her presence, and
38 ANNA KARENINA
not losing her out of his sight a single instant, although
he did not look at her. He felt that the sun was shin-
ing nearer to him. She was at one corner and came
gliding toward him, putting together her slender feet
in high boots, and evidently feeling a little timid. A
boy in Russian costume was clumsily trying to get
ahead of her, desperately waving his arms and bending
far forward. Kitty herself did not skate with much
confidence. She had taken her hands out of her little
muff, suspended by a ribbon, and held them ready to
grasp the first object that came in her way. Looking
at Levin, whom she had recognized, she smiled at him
and at her own timidity. As soon as this evolution
was finished, she struck out with her elastic little foot,
and skated up to Shcherbatsky, seized him by the arm,
and gave Levin a friendly welcome. She was more
charming even than he had imagined her to be.
Whenever he thought of her, he could easily recall
her whole appearance, but especially the charm of her
small blond head, set so gracefully on her pretty shoul-
ders, and her expression of childlike frankness and
goodness. The combination of childlike grace and deli-
cate beauty of form was her special charm, and Levin
thoroughly appreciated it. But what struck him like
something always new and unexpected was the look
in her sweet eyes, her calm and sincere face, and her
smile, which transported him to a world of enchantment,
where he felt at peace and at rest, as he remembered
occasionally feeling in the days of his early childhood.
" Have you been here long ? " she asked, giving him
her hand.
"Thank you," she added, as he picked up her hand-
kerchief, which had dropped out of her muff.
"I.'' No, not long; I came yesterday .... that is, to-
day," answered Levin, so agitated that at first he did
not get the drift of her question. " I wanted to call
upon you," said he ; and when he remembered what
his errand was, he grew red, and was more distressed
than ever. "I did not know that you skated, and so
well."
ANNA KARENINA 39
She looked at him closely, as if trying to divine the
reason of his embarrassment.
" Your praise is precious. A tradition that you are
the best of skaters is still floating about," said she,
brushing off with her little hand, in its black glove, the
pine needles that had fallen on her muff.
" Yes, I used to be passionately fond of skating. I
had the ambition to reach perfection."
" It seems to me that you do all things passionately,"
said she, with a smile. " I should like to see you skate.
Put on your skates, and we will skate together."
" Skate together .-* " he thought, as he looked at her.
" Is it possible.?"
" I will go and put them right on," he said ; and he
hastened to find a pair of skates.
" It is a long time, sir, since you have been with us,"
said the katalshchik, as he lifted his foot to fit the heel
to it. " Since your day, we have not had any one who
deserved to be called a master in the art. Are they
going to suit you ?" he asked, as he tightened the strap.
"Excellent, excellent; only please make haste," said
Levin, unable to hide the smile of joy which, in spite
of him, irradiated his face. "Yes," said he to himself,
" this is life, this is happiness. ' We will skate together^
she said. Shall I speak to her now.-* But I am afraid
to speak, because I am happy, happy only in the
hope .... Yet when .-'.... But it must be, it must, it must.
Down with weakness ! "
Levin stood up, took off his cloak, and, after making
his way across the rough ice around the little house, he
skated out on the glare surface without effort, hasten-
ing, shortening, and directing his pace as if by the
mere effort of his will. He felt timid about coming up
to her, but again her smile assured him.
She gave him her hand, and they skated side by side,
gradually increasing speed ; and the faster they went,
the closer she held his hand.
" I should learn very quickly with you," she said.
" I somehow feel confidence in you."
"I am confident in myself when you cling to my
40 ANNA KARENINA
hand," he answered, and immediately he was startled at
what he had said, and grew red in the face. In fact,
he had scarcely uttered the words, when, just as the sun
goes under a cloud, her face lost all its kindliness, and
Levin became aware of the well-remembered play of
her face indicating the force of her thoughts ; a slight
frown wrinkled her smooth brow !
" Has anything disagreeable happened to you ? but I
have no right to ask," he added quickly.
" Why so .'' No, nothing disagreeable has happened
to me," she said coolly, and immediately continued,
" Have you seen Mile. Linon yet .-' "
" Not yet."
" Go to see her ; she is so fond of you."
" What does this mean ? I have offended her ! Lord !
have pity upon me ! " thought Levin, and skated swiftly
toward the old French governess, with little gray curls,
who was watching them from a bench. She received
him like an old friend, smiling, and showing her false
teeth.
"Yes, but how we have grown up," she said, indicat-
ing Kitty with her eyes ; " and how demure we are !
Tiny bear has grown large," continued the old gover-
ness, still smiling ; and she recalled his jest about the
three young ladies whom he had named after the three
bears in the English story " Do you remember that
you used to call them so ."^ "
He had entirely forgotten it, but she had laughed at
this pleasantry for ten years, and still enjoyed it.
" Now go, go and skate. Does n't our Kitty take to it
beautifully } "
When Levin rejoined Kitty, her face was no longer
severe ; her eyes had regained their frank and kindly
expression ; but it seemed to him that her very kindli-
ness had a peculiar premeditated tone of serenity, and
he felt troubled. After speaking of the old governess
and her eccentricities, she asked him about his own life.
•* Is n't it a bore living in the country in the winter .? "
she asked.
" No, it is not a bore; I am very busy," he replied,
ANNA KARENINA ^i
conscious that she was bringing him into the atmosphere
of serene friendliness from which he could not escape
now, any more than he could at the beginning of the
winter.
" Shall you stay long ? " asked Kitty.
" I do not know," he answered, without regard to
what he was saying. The thought that, if he fell back
into that tone of calm friendship, he might return home
without reaching any decision, occurred to him, and he
resolved to rebel against it.
" Why don't you know .'' "
" I don't know why. It depends on you," he said,
and instantly he was horrified at his own words.
She either did not understand his words, or did not
want to understand them, for, seeming to stumble once
or twice, catching her foot, she hurriedly skated away
from him; and, having spoken to Mile. Linon, she went
to the little house, where her skates were removed by
the waiting-women.
" My God ! what have I done ? O Lord God ! have
pity upon me, and come to my aid ! " was Levin's secret
prayer ; and, feeling the need of taking some violent
exercise, he began to describe outer and inner curves on
the ice.
At this instant a young man, the best among the re-
cent skaters, came out of the caf/ with his skates on,
and a cigarette in his mouth ; with one spring he slid
down, slipping and leaping from step to step, and, with-
out even changing the easy position of his arms, skated
down and out upon the ice.
" Ah, that is a new trick," said Levin to himself, and
he climbed up to the top of the bank to try the new trick.
" Don't you kill yourself ! it needs practice," shouted
Nikolai Shcherbatsky.
Levin went up to the platform, got as good a start as
he could, and then flew down the steps preserving his
balance with his arms ; but at the last step he stumbled,
made a violent effort to recover himself, regained his
equilibrium, and with a laugh glided out upon the ice.
"Charming, glorious fellow," thought Kitty, at this
42 ANNA KARENINA
moment coming out of the little house with Mile. Linon,
and looking at him with a gentle, affectionate smile, as if
he were a beloved brother. "Is it my fault ? Have I
done anything very bad? People say, 'Coquetry.' I
know that I don't love him, but it is pleasant to be with
him, and he is such a splendid fellow. But what made
him say that .-* "....
Seeing Kitty departing with her mother, who had
come for her, Levin, flushed with his violent exercise,
stopped and pondered. Then he took off his skates,
and joined the mother and daughter at the gate.
"Very glad to see you," said the princess; "we re-
ceive on Thursdays, as usual."
"To-day, then.?"
"We shall be very glad to see you," she answered
coolly.
This coolness troubled Kitty, and she could not re-
strain her desire to temper her mother's chilling man-
ner. She turned her head, and said, with a smile, " We
shall see you, I hope."^
At this moment Stepan Arkadyevitch, with hat on
one side, with animated face and bright eyes, entered
the garden. But as he came up to his wife's mother,
he assumed a melancholy and humiliated expression,
and replied to the questions which she asked about
Dolly's health. When he had finished speaking in a
low and broken voice with his mother-in-law, he straight-
ened himself up, and took Levin's arm.
" Now, then, shall we go .'' I have been thinking of
you all the time, and I am very glad that you came,"
he said, with a significant look into his eyes.
"Come on, come on," replied the happy Levin, who
did not cease to hear the sound of a voice saying, " We
shall see yon, I Jiope,'' or to recall the smile that accom-
panied the words.
"At the Anglia, or at the Hermitage .-' "
" It 's all the same to me."
"At the Anglia, then," said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
making this choice because he owed more there than at
1 Simply da svidanya, equivalent to au revoir.
ANNA KARENINA 43
the Hermitage, and it seemed unworthy of him, so to
speak, to avoid this restaurant. "You have an izvosh-
chik ? So much the better, for I sent off my car-
riage."
While they were on the way, the friends did not
exchange a word. Levin was pondering on the mean-
ing of the change in the expression of Kitty's face, and
at one moment persuaded himself that there was hope,
and at the next plunged into despair, and he saw clearly
that his hope was unreasonable. Nevertheless, he felt
that he was another man since he had heard those
words, "We shall see you, I hope," and seen her smile.
Stepan Arkadyevitch was meantime making out the
'tnenu for their dinner.
" You like turbot, don't you .-' " were his first words
on entering the restaurant.
"What.''" exclaimed Levin "Turbot.? Yes, I
am excessively fond of turbot."
CHAPTER X
Levin could not help noticing, as they entered the
restaurant, how Stepan Arkadyevitch's face and whole
person seemed to shine with restrained happiness. Ob-
lonsky took off his overcoat, and, with hat over one ear,
marched toward the dining-room, giving, as he went, his
orders to the Tatars who in swallow-tails and with nap-
kins came hurrying to meet him. Bowing right and left
to his acquaintances, who here as everywhere seemed
delighted to see him, he went directly to the bar and
took some vodka and a little fish, and said something
comical to the barmaid, a pretty, curly-haired French
girl, painted, and covered with ribbons and lace, so that
she burst into a peal of laughter. But Levin would not
drink any vodka simply because the sight of this French
creature, all made up, apparently, of false hair, rice-
powder, and vinaigre de toilette was revolting to him.
He turned away from her quickly, with disgust, as from
some horrid place. His whole soul was filled with
44 ANNA KARENINA
memories of Kitty, and his eyes shone with triumph and
happiness,
" This way, your excellency ; come this way, and
your excellency will not be disturbed," said a specially
obsequious old Tatar, whose monstrous hips made the
tails of his coat stick out behind. " Will you come this
way, your excellency?" said he to Levin, as a sign of
respect for Stepan Arkadyevitch, whose guest he was.
In a twinkling he had spread a fresh cloth on the round
table, which, already covered, stood under the bronze
chandelier; then, bringing two velvet chairs, he stood
waiting for Stepan Arkadyevitch's orders, holding in
one hand his napkin, and his order-card in the other.
" If your excellency would like to have a private
room, one will be at your service in a few moments
Prince Galitsuin and a lady. We have just received
fresh oysters."
"Ah, oysters! "
Stepan Arkadyevitch reflected. " Supposing we
change our plan. Levin," said he, with his finger on
the bill of fare. His face showed serious hesitation.
" But are the oysters good ? Pay attention ! "
** They are from Flensburg, your excellency ; there
are none from Ostend."
** Flensburg oysters are well enough, but are they
fresh.?"
" They came yesterday."
"Very good! What do you say.' — to begin with
oysters, and then to make a complete change in our
menu f What say you .'' "
" It 's all the same to me. I 'd like best of all some
skchi^ and kasJia^ but you can't get them here."
" Kasha a la riisse, if you would like to order it," said
the Tatar, bending over toward Levin as a nurse bends
toward a child.
" No. Jesting aside, whatever you wish is good. I
have been skating and should like something to eat.
Don't imagine," he added, as he saw an expression of
disappointment on Oblonsky's face, " that I do not
1 Cabbage soup. * Wheat gruel.
ANNA KARENINA 45
appreciate your selection. I can eat a good dinner with
pleasure."
" It should be more than that ! You should say that
it is one of the pleasures of life," said Stepan Arkady e-
vitch. " In this case, little brother mine, give us two,
or.... no, that 's not enough, three dozen oysters, vegetable
soup .... "
" Printanikre," suggested the Tatar.
But Stepan Arkadyevitch did not allow him the
pleasure of enumerating the dishes in French, and con-
tinued : —
" Vegetable soup, you understand ; then turbot, with
thick sauce ; then roast beef, but see to it that it 's all
right. Yes, some capon, and lastly, some preserve."
The Tatar, remembering Stepan Arkadyevitch's ca-
price of not calling the dishes by their French names,
instead of repeating them after him, waited till he had
finished; then he gave himself the pleasure of repeating
the order according to the bill of fare : —
" Potage printanih'e, turbot, sauce Beatimarchais,
ponlarde a V estragon, macidoine de fruits^
Then instantly, as if moved by a spring, he substi-
tuted for the bill of fare the wine-list, which he presented
to Stepan Arkadyevitch.
" What shall we drink .? "
"Whatever you please, only not much.... champagne,"
suggested Levin.
** What ! at the very beginning ? But you may be
right ; why not .'' Do you like the white seal }
" Cachet blanc^' repeated the Tatar.
" Well, then, give us that brand with the oysters.
Then we '11 see."
" It shall be done, sir. And what table wine shall I
bring you } "
"Some Nuits ; no, hold on — give us some classic
Chablts."
" It shall be done, sir ; and will you order some of
f02er cheese .'' "
"Yes, somQ parmesan. Or do you prefer some other
kind?"
46 ANNA KARENINA
" No, it 's all the same to me," replied Levin, who
could not keep from smiling.
The Tatar disappeared on the trot, with his coat
tails flying out behind him. Five minutes later he came
with a platter of oysters opened and on the shell, and
with a bottle in his hand. Stepan Arkadyevitch crum-
pled up his well-starched napkin, tucked it into his
waistcoat, calmly stretched out his hands, and began
to attack the oysters.
" Not bad at all," he said, as he lifted the succulent
oysters from their shells with a silver fork, and swal-
lowed them one by one. " Not at all bad," he repeated,
looking from Levin to the Tatar, his eyes gleaming
with satisfaction.
Levin also ate his oysters, although he would have
preferred white bread and cheese ; but he could not
help admiring Oblonsky. Even the Tatar, after un-
corking the bottle and pouring the sparkling wine into
wide, delicate glass cups, looked at Stepan Arkadyevitch
with a noticeable smile of satisfaction while he adjusted
his white necktie.
" You are not very fond of oysters, are you .'' " asked
Stepan Arkadyevitch, draining his glass. " Or you are
preoccupied.'* Hey.-'"
He wanted Levin to be in good spirits, but Levin was
anxious, if he was not downcast. His heart being so
full, he found himself out of his element in this restau-
rant, amid the confusion of guests coming and going,
surrounded by the private rooms where men and women
were dining together ; everything was repugnant to his
feelings, — the whole outfit of bronzes and mirrors, the
gas and the Tatars. He feared that the sentiment
that occupied his soul would be defiled.
" I .'' Yes, I am a little absent-minded ; but besides,
everything here confuses me. You can't imagine," he
said, "how strange all these surroundings seem to a
countryman like myself. It 's like the finger-nails of
that gentleman whom I met at your office." ....
" Yes, I noticed that poor Grinevitch's finger-nails inter-
ested you greatly," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laughing.
ANNA KARENINA 47
" It is of no use," replied Levin. " Suppose you come
to me and try the standpoint of a man accustomed to
living in the country. We in the country try to have
hands suitable to work with; therefore we cut off our
finger-nails, and oftentimes we even turn back our
sleeves. But here men let their nails grow as long as
possible, and so as to be sure of not being able to do
any work with their hands, they fasten their sleeves with
plates for buttons."
Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled gayly : —
"That is a sign that he has no need of manual labor;
it is brain-work .... "
" Perhaps so. Yet it seems strange to me, no less
than this that we are doing here. In the country we
make haste to get through our meals so as to be at work
again ; but here you and I are doing our best to eat as
long as possible without getting satisfied, and so we are
eating oysters. " ....
" Well, there 's something in that," replied Stepan
Arkadyevitch ; " but the aim of civilization is to trans-
late everything into enjoyment."
" If that is its aim, I should prefer to be untamed."
" And you are untamed I All you Levins are un-
tamed."
Levin sighed. He thought of his brother Nikolai",
and felt mortified and saddened, and his face grew
dark ; but Oblonsky introduced a topic which had the
immediate effect of diverting him.
" Very well, come this evening to our house. I mean
to the Shcherbatskys'," said he, pushing away the
empty oyster-shells, drawing the cheese toward him,
and flashing his eyes significantly.
"Yes, I will surely come," replied Levin; "though
it did not seem that the princess was very cordial in her
invitation."
"What rubbish ! It was only her manner Come,
friend, bring us the soup It was only her graiidc da^ne
manner," replied Stepan Arkadyevitch. " I shall come
there immediately after a rehearsal at .the Countess
Bonina's How can we help calling you untamed .-'
48 ANNA KARENINA
How can you explain your flight from Moscow ? The
Shcherbatskys have kept asking me about you, as if I
were Ukely to know ! I only know one thing, that you
are always likely to do things that no one else did."
" Yes," replied Levin, slowly, and with emotion ; " you
are right, I am untamed ; yet it was not that I went,
but that I have come back proves me so ! I have come
now...."
" Oh, what a lucky fellow you are ! " interrupted
Oblonsky, looking into Levin's eyes.
"Why.?"
" I know fiery horses by their brand, and I know
young people who are in love by their eyes," said
Stepan Arkadyevitch, dramatically ; " everything is be-
fore you ! "
" And yourself, — is' everything behind you .-' "
" No, not altogether, but you have the future ; and I
have the present, and this present is between the devil
and the deep sea ! "
" What is the matter ? "
" Nothing good. But I don't want to talk about my-
self, especially as I cannot explain the circumstances,"
replied Stepan Arkadyevitch. " What did you come to
Moscow for .-*.... Here! clear off the things!" he cried
to the Tatar.
" Can't you imagine ? " answered Levin, not taking
his glowing eyes from Oblonsky's face.
" I can imagine, but it is not for me to be the first to
speak about it. By this you can tell whether I am
right in my conjecture," said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
looking at Levin with a sly smile.
" Well, what have you to tell me ? " asked Levin,
with a trembling voice, and feeling all the muscles of
his face quiver. " How do you look at this ? "
Stepan Arkadyevitch slowly drank his glass of Chablis
while he looked steadily at Levin.
" I .'' " said Stepan Arkadyevitch. "There is nothing
that I should like so much — nothing. It is the best
thing that could possibly be ! "
" But are n't you mistaken ? Do you know what we
ANNA KARENINA 49
are talking about ? " murmured Levin, with his eyes fixed
on his companion. "Do you beHeve that this is possible ? "
" I think it is possible. Why should n't it be .-* "
" No, do you really think that it is possible .-' No !
tell me what you really think. If.... if she should refuse
me.... and I am almost certain that.... "
"Why should you be ? " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch,
smiling at this emotion.
" It is my intuition. It would be terrible for me and
for her."
" Oh ! in any case, I can't see that it would be very
terrible for her ; a young girl is always flattered to be
asked in marriage."
" Young girls in general, perhaps, not she."
Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled ; he perfectly under-
stood Levin's feeling, knew that for him all the young
girls in the universe were divided into two categories :
in the one, all the young girls in existence except her —
and these girls had all the faults common to humanity,
in other words, ordinary girls ; in the other, she alone,
without any faults, and placed above the rest of
humanity.
" Hold on ! take some gravy," said he, stopping
Levin's hand, who was pushing away the gravy.
Levin took the gravy in all humility, but he did not
give Oblonsky a chance to eat.
" No, just wait, wait," said he ; " you understand
this is for me a question of life and death. I have
never spoken to any one else about it, and I cannot
speak to any one else but you. I know we are very
different from each other, have different tastes, views,
everything ; but I know also that you love me, and
that you understand me, and that 's the reason I am so
fond of you. Now, for God's sake, be perfectly sincere
with me."
" I will tell you what I think," said Stepan Arka-
dyevitch, smiHng. " But I will tell you more : my wife
— a most extraordinary woman " — and Stepan Ar-
kadyevitch sighed, as he remembered his relations with
his wife — then after a moment's silence he proceeded
50 ANNA KARENINA
— "she has a gift of second sight, and sees through
people, but that is nothing ! she knows what is going to
happen, especially when there is a question of marriage.
Thus, she predicted that Brenteln would marry Sha-
khovskaya ; no one would believe it, and yet it came to
pass. Well, my wife is on your side."
" What do you mean } "
" I mean that she likes you ; she says that Kitty will
be your wife."
As he heard these words, Levin's face suddenly
lighted up with a smile which was near to tears of
emotion.
" She said that ! " he cried. " I always said that your
wife was charming. But enough, enough of this sort of
talk," he added, and rose from the table.
" Good ! but sit a little while longer."
But Levin could not sit down. He strode two or
three times up and down the little square room, wink-
ing his eyes to hide the tears, and then he sat down
again at the table.
" Understand me," he said ; " this is not love. I have
been in love, but this is not the same thing. This is
more than a sentiment ; it is an inward power that con-
trols me. You see, I went away because I had made
up my mind that such happiness could not exist, that
such good fortune could not be on earth. But after a
struggle with myself, I find that I cannot live without
this. This question must be decided...."
" But why did you go away .-* "
" Akh ! wait ! Akh ! so many things to think about !
so much to ask ! Listen, you cannot imagine what your
words have done for me ! I am so happy that I have
already grown detestable ! I am forgetting everything ;
and yet this very day I heard that my brother Nikolai —
you know — he is here, and I had entirely forgotten him.
It seems to me that he, too, ought to be happy. But this
is like a fit of madness. But one thing seems terrible to
me You are married ; you ought to know this feeling.
It is terrible that we who are already getting old .... with a
pastbehindus....notof love but of wickedness. ...suddenly
ANNA KARENINA 51
come into close relations with a pure and innocent
being. This is disgusting, and so I cannot help feeling
that I am unworthy."
" Well ! you have not much wickedness to answer
for!"
" Akh ! " said Levin; "and yet, ^ as I look zuith dis-
gust 071 vty life, I tremble atid cjirse and mourn bitterly,'
....yes!"
" But what can you do .'' the world is thus constituted,"
said Stepan Arkadyevitch.
" There is only one consolation, and that is in the
prayer that I have always loved : 'Pardon me not accord-
ing to my deserts, but according to Thy loving-kindness'
Thus only can she forgive me."
CHAPTER XI
Levin drained his glass, and they were silent.
" I ought to tell you one thing, though. Do you know
Vronsky } " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch.
" No, I don't know him ; why do you ask .-* "
" Bring us another bottle," said Oblonsky to the
Tatar, who was refilling their glasses and was hover-
ing about them, especially when he was not needed.
" You must know that Vronsky is one of your rivals."
" Who is this Vronsky .'^ " asked Levin, and his face,
a moment since beaming with the youthful enthusiasm
which Oblonsky so much admired, suddenly took on a
disagreeable expression of anger.
" Vronsky — he is one of Count Kirill Ivanovitch
Vronsky's sons, and one of the finest examples of the
gilded youth of Petersburg. I used to know him at
Tver when I was on duty there ; he came there for re-
cruiting service. He is immensely rich, handsome, with
excellent connections, one of the emperor's aides, and,
moreover, a capital good fellow. From what I have
seen of him, he is more than a ' good fellow ' ; he is
well educated and bright, he is a rising man."
Levin scowled, and said nothing.
52 ANNA KARENINA
" Well, then ! he put in an appearance soon after you
left ; and, as I understand, he fell over ears in love with
Kitty. You understand that her mother.... "
" Excuse me, but I don't understand at all," inter-
rupted Levin, scowling still more fiercely. And sud-
denly he remembered his brother Nikolai', and how ugly
it was in him to forget him,
"Just wait, wait," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laying
his hand on Levin's arm with a smile. " I have told
you all that I know ; but I repeat, that, in my humble
opinion, the chances in this delicate affair are on your
side."
Levin leaned back in his chair ; his face was pale.
" But I advise you to settle the matter as quickly as
possible," suggested Oblonsky, filling up his glass.
" No, thank you : I cannot drink any more," said
Levin, pushing away the glass. " I shall be tipsy
Well, how are you feeling?" he added, desiring to
change the conversation.
" One word more : in any case I advise you to settle
the question quickly. I advise you to speak immedi-
ately," said Stepan Arkadyevitch. " Go to-morrow
morning, make your proposal in classic style, and God
bless you." ....
" Why have n't you ever come to hunt with me as
you promised to do ."^ Come this spring," said Levin.
He now repented with all his heart that he had en-
tered upon this conversation with Stepan Arkadyevitch :
his deepest feelings were wounded by what he had just
learned of the pretensions of his rival, the young officer
from Petersburg, as well as by the advice and insinua-
tions of Stepan Arkadyevitch.
Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled. He perceived what
was taking place in Levin's heart,
"I will come some day," he said, "Yes, brother,
woman's the spring that moves everything. My own
trouble is bad, very bad. And all on account of women.
Give me your advice," said he, taking a cigar, and still
holding his glass in his hand. " Tell me frankly what
you think."
ANNA KARENINA S3
"But what about?"
" Listen : suppose you were married, that you loved
your wife, but had been drawn away by another
woman .... "
" Excuse me. I really can't imagine any such thing.
As it looks to me, it would be as if in coming out from
dinner, I should steal a loaf of bread from a bakery."
Stepan Arkadyevitch's eyes sparkled more than usual.
" Why not .'* Bread sometimes smells so good, that one
cannot resist the temptation : —
" Himmlisch I'sfs, wenn ich bezwungen
Aleine irdische Begier :
Aber dock wenns's m'c/it gelungen,
HaW ich aiich recht hilbsch Plaisiry^
As he repeated these lines, Oblonsky smiled.
Levin could not refrain from smiling also.
" But a truce to pleasantries," continued Oblonsky.
"Imagine a woman, a charming, modest, loving crea-
ture, poor, and alone in the world, who had sacrificed
everything for you. Now, imagine, after the thing is
done, is it necessary to give her up } We '11 allow that
it is necessary to break with her, so as not to disturb
the peace of the family ; but ought we not to pity her,
to make provision for her, to soften the blow .? "
" Pardon me ; but you know that for me all women are
divided into two classes, .... no, that is, .... there are women,
and there are .... But I never yet have seen or expect
to see beautiful fallen women, beautiful repentant Mag-
dalens ; and such women as that painted French creature
at the bar, with her false curls, fill me with disgust, and
all fallen women are the same ! "
" But the woman in the New Testament } "
" Akh ! hold your peace. Never would Christ have
said those words if he had known to what bad use they
would be put. Out of the whole Gospel, only those
1 It was heavenly when I gained
What my heart desired on earth :
Yet if not all were attained,
Still I had my share of mirth.
54 ANNA KARENINA
words are taken. However, I don't say what I think,
but what I feel. You feel a disgust for spiders and
I for these reptiles. You see you did not have to study
spiders, and you know nothing about their natures.
So it is with me."
" It is well for you to say so ; it is a very convenient
way to do as the character in Dickens did, and throw
all embarrassing questions over his right shoulder with
his left hand. But to deny a fact is not to answer it.
Now, what is to be done ? tell me ! what is to be done .-'
Your wife grows old and you are full of life. Before
you are aware of it you realize that you do not love your
wife, however much you may respect her. And then
suddenly you fall in love with some one and you fall,
you fall! " said Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a melancholy
despair.
Levin laughed,
" Yes, you fall ! " repeated Oblonsky. " Then what
is to be done ? "
" Don't steal fresh bread."
Stepan Arkadyevitch burst out laughing.
" O moralist ! but please appreciate the situation.
Here are two women : one insists only on her rights,
and her rights mean your love which you cannot give ;
the other has sacrificed everything for you and demands
nothing. What can one do ? How can one proceed .''
Here is a terrible tragedy! "
"If you wish my judgment concerning this tragedy,
I will tell you that I don't believe in this tragedy, and
this is why. In my opinion, Love — the two Loves
which Plato describes in his ' Symposium,' you remem-
ber, serve as the touchstone for men. Some people
understand only one of them ; others understand the
other. Those who comprehend only the Platonic love
have no right to speak of this tragedy now. In this
sort of love there can be no tragedy. / tJiank yo?i
humbly for the pleasure ; and therein consists the whole
drama. But for Platonic love there can be no tragedy
because it is bright and pure, and because.... "
At this moment Levin remembered his own short-
ANNA KARENINA 55
comings and the inward struggles which he had under-
gone, and he unexpectedly added, " However, you may
be right. It is quite possible.... I know nothing — abso-
lutely nothing — about it."
" Do you see," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, " you are
a very perfect man ? Your great virtue is your only
fault. You are a very perfect character and you desire
that all the factors of life should also be perfect ; but this
cannot be. Here you scorn the service of the state,
because, according to your idea, every action should
correspond to an exact end ; but this cannot be. You
require also that the activity of every man should always
have an object, that conjugal life and love be one and
the same ; but this cannot be. All the variety, all the
charm, all the beauty, of life consists in lights and shades."
Levin sighed, and did not answer ; he was absorbed
in his own thoughts and did not even listen.
And suddenly both of them felt that, though they were
good friends, though they had been dining together and
drinking wine, yet each was thinking only of his own
affairs and cared nothing for the affairs of the other.
Oblonsky had more than once had this experience after
dining with a friend, and he knew what had to be done
when, instead of coming into closer sympathy, the dis-
tance between seemed widened.
" The account," he cried, and went into the next room,
where he met an aide whom he knew, and with whom
he began to talk about an actress and her lover. This
conversation amused and rested Oblonsky after his con-
versation with Levin, who always kept his mind on too
great an intellectual and moral strain.
When the Tatar brought the account, amounting to
twenty-six rubles and odd kopeks, and something more
for his fee, Levin, who at any other time, as a country-
man, would have been shocked at the size of the bill,
paid the fourteen rubles of his share without noticing,
and went to his lodgings to dress for the reception at
the Shcherbatskys', where his fate would be decided.
56 ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER XII
The Princess Kitty Shcherbatskaya was eighteen years
old. She was making her first appearance in society
this winter, and her triumphs had been more brilliant
than her elder sisters, more than even her mother, had
expected. Not only were almost all the young men
who danced at balls in Moscow in love with Kitty,
but, moreover, there were two who, during this first
winter, were serious aspirants to her hand, — Levin,
and, soon after his departure, Count Vronsky.
Levin's appearance at the beginning of the winter,
his frequent calls and his unconcealed love for Kitty,
were the first subjects that gave cause for serious con-
versation between her father and mother in regard to
her future and for disputes between the prince and
princess. The prince was on Levin's side, and declared
that he could not desire a better match for Kitty. But
the princess, with the skill which women have for avoid-
ing a question, insisted that Kitty was too young, that
Levin did not seem to be serious in his attentions, and
that she did not show great partiality for him ; but
she did not express what was in the bottom of her
heart, — that she was ambitious for a more brilliant
marriage, that Levin did not appeal to her sympathies,
and that she did not understand him. And when Levin
took a sudden leave she was glad and said; with an air
of triumph, to her husband : —
" You see, I was right."
When Vronsky appeared on the scene, she was still
more glad, being confirmed in her opinion that Kitty
ought to make, not merely a good, but a brilliant match.
For the princess there was no comparison between
Vronsky and Levin as suitors. The mother disliked
Levin and his strange and harsh judgments, his awk-
wardness in society, which she attributed to his pride and
what she called his savage life in the country, occupied
with his cattle and peasants. Nor did she like it at all
that Levin, though he was in love with her daughter, and
ANNA KARENINA . 57
had been a frequent visitor at their house for six weeks,
had appeared like a man who was hesitating, watching,
and questioning whether, if he should offer himself, the
honor which he conferred on them would not be too
great, and that he did not seem to understand that when
a man comes assiduously to a house where there is a
marriageable daughter, it is proper for him to declare
his intentions. And then he suddenly departed with-
out any explanation !
"It is fortunate," the mother thought, "that he is so
unattractive, and that Kitty has not fallen in love with
him."
Vronsky satisfied all her requirements : he was very
rich, intelligent, of good birth, with a brilliant career
at court or in the army before him, and, moreover, he
was charming. Nothing better could be desired. Vron-
sky was devoted to Kitty at the balls, danced with her,
and called upon her parents ; there could be no doubt
that his intentions were serious. But, notwithstanding
this, the mother had passed this whole winter full of
doubts and perplexities.
The princess herself had been married thirty years
before, through the match-making of an aunt. Her
suitor, who was well known by reputation, came, saw
the young lady, and was seen by the family ; the aunt
who served as intermediary gave and received the re-
port of the impression produced on both sides ; the
impression was favorable. Then on a designated day
the expected proposal was made on the parents, and
granted. Everything had passed off very easily and
simply. At least, so it seemed to the princess. But in
the case of her own daughters, she learned by experi-
ence how difficult and complicated this apparently
simple matter of getting girls married really was. How
many fears she had to go through ! How many things
had to be thought over, how much money had to be
lavished, how many collisions with her husband, when
the time came for Darya and Natali to be married !
And now that the youngest was in the matrimonial
market, she was obliged to suffer from the same anxi-
58 ANNA KARENINA
eties, the same doubts, and even more bitter quarrels
with her husband.
The old prince, like all fathers, was excessively punc-
tilious about everything concerning the honor and
purity of his daughters, he was distressingly jealous re-
garding them, especially Kitty, who was his favorite,
and at every step he accused his wife of compromising
his daughter. The princess had become accustomed to
these scenes from the days of her elder daughters, but
now she felt that her husband's strictness had more
justification. She saw that in these later days many of
the practices of society had undergone a change, so
that the duties of mothers were becoming more and
more difficult. She saw how Kitty's young girl friends
formed a sort of clique, went to races, freely mingled
with men, went out driving alone ; that many of them
no longer made courtesies ; and, what was more serious,
all of them were firmly convinced that the choice of
husbands was their affair and not their parents'.
" Marriages aren't made as they used to be," thought
and said all these young ladies, and even some of the
older people.
" But how are marriages made nowadays .-' " This ques-
tion the princess could not get any one to answer.
The French custom, where the parents decide the
fate of their children, was not accepted, was even bitterly
criticized. The English custom, which allows the girls
absolute liberty, was also not accepted, and was not pos-
sible in Russian spciety. The Russian custom of em-
ploying a match-maker was regarded as bad form ;
every one ridiculed it, even the princess herself. But
no one seemed to know what course to take in regard to
courtship. Every one with whom the princess talked
said the same thing.
" For goodness' sake, it is time for us to renounce
those exploded notions; it is the young folks, and not
their parents, who get married, and, therefore, it is for
young folks to make their arrangements in accordance
with their own ideas."
It was well enough for those without daughters to
ANNA KARENINA 59
say this ; but the princess knew well that in this familiar
intercourse her daughter might fall in love, and fall in
love with some one who would not dream of marrying
her, or would not make her a good husband. However
earnestly they suggested to the princess that in our
time young people ought to settle their own destinies,
she found it impossible to agree with them any more
than she could believe in the advisability of allowing the
four-year-old children of our time to have loaded pistols
as their favorite toys. And so the princess felt much
more solicitude about Kitty than she had felt about
either of her other daughters.
She feared now that Vronsky would content himself
with playing the gallant. She saw that Kitty was
already in love with him, but she consoled herself with
the thought that he was a man of honor and would not
do so ; but, at the same time, she knew how easy it was,
with the new freedom allowed in society, to turn a young
girl's head, and how lightly men as a general thing
regarded this.
The week before Kitty had told her mother of a con-
versation which she had held with Vronsky during a
mazurka. This conversation had partially relieved the
princess's mind, though it did not absolutely satisfy her.
Vronsky told Kitty that he and his brother were both so
used to letting their mother decide things for them, that
they never undertook anything of importance without
consulting her.
" And now I am looking for my mother's arrival from
Petersburg as a great piece of good fortune," he had said.
Kitty reported these words without attaching any im-
portance to them, but her mother understood them very
differently. She knew that the old countess was ex-
pected from day to day ; she knew that the old countess
would be satisfied with her son's choice ; and it was
strange to her that he had not offered himself, as if he
feared to offend his mother. However, she herself was
so anxious for this match, and above all for relief from
her anxieties, that she gave a favorable interpretation to
these words. Bitterly as she felt the unhappiness of her
6o ANNA KARENINA
oldest daughter, Dolly, who was thinking of leaving her
husband, agitation regarding the decision of her young-
est daughter's fate completely absorbed her thoughts.
Levin's arrival to-day gave her a new anxiety. She
feared lest her daughter, who, as she thought, had at one
time felt drawn toward Levin, might, out of excessive
delicacy, refuse Vronsky, and she feared more than
anything else that his arrival would complicate every-
thing and postpone a long-desired consummation.
" Has he been here long.''" asked the princess of her
daughter, when they reached home after their meeting
with Levin.
"Since yesterday, inaman."
" I have one thing that I want to say to you ...." the
princess began, and, at the sight of her serious and agi-
tated face, Kitty knew what was coming.
" Mamma," said she, blushing, and turning quickly to
her, " please, please don't speak about this. I know, I
know all ! "
She wished the same thing that her mother wished,
but the motives of her mother's desires were repugnant
to her.
" I only wish to say that as you have given hope to
one...."
" Mamma, galnbchik} don't speak. It 's so terrible
to speak about this."
" I will not," replied her mother, seeing the tears in
her daughter's eyes ; " only one word, moya diisha ^ :
you have promised to have no secrets from me. Have
you any ? "
" Never, mamma, not one ! " replied Kitty, looking
her mother full in the face and blushing; "but I have
nothing to tell now. I .... I .... even if I wanted to, I
don't know what to say and how.... I don't know ...."
" No, with those eyes she cannot speak a falsehood,"
said the mother to herself, smiling at her emotion and
happiness. The princess smiled to think how momen-
tous appeared to the poor girl what was passing in her
heart.
^ Little dove. ^ My soul.
ANNA KARENINA 6i
CHAPTER XIII
After dinner, and during the first part of the even-
ing, Kitty felt as a young man feels before a battle.
Her heart beat violently, and she could not concentrate
her thoughts.
She felt that this evening, when they two should meet
for the first time, would decide her fate. She kept see-
ing them in her imagination, sometimes together, some-
times separately. When she thought of the past,
pleasure, almost tenderness, filled her heart at the
remembrance of her relations with Levin. The recol-
lections of her childhood and of his friendship with
her departed brother imparted a certain poetic charm
to her relations with him. His love for her, of which
she was certain, was flattering and agreeable to her,
and she found it easy to think about Levin. In her
thoughts about Vronsky there was something that
made her uneasy, though he was a man to the highest
degree polished and self-possessed ; there seemed to be
something false, not in him, — for he was very simple
and good, — but in herself, while all was clear and
simple in her relations with Levin. But while Vronsky
seemed to offer her dazzling promises and a brilliant
future, the future with Levin seemed enveloped in
mist.
When she went up-stairs to dress for the evening and
looked into the mirror, she noticed with delight that she was
looking her loveliest, and that she was in full possession
of all her powers, and what was most important on this
occasion, that she felt at ease and entirely self-possessed.
At half-past seven, as she was going into the drawing-
room, the lackey announced, " Konstantin Dmitritch
Levin." The princess was still in her room ; the prince
had not yet come down. " It has come at last," thought
Kitty, and all the blood rushed to her heart. As she
glanced into a mirror, she was startled to see how pale
she looked.
She knew now, for a certainty, that he had come early,
62 ANNA KARENINA
so as to find her alone and offer himself. And instantly
the situation appeared to her for the first time in a new,
strange light. Then only she realized that the question
did not concern herself alone, nor who would make her
happy, nor whom she loved, but that she should have to
wound a man whom she liked, and to wound him cruelly
.... why, why was it that such a charming man loved
her .-' Why had he fallen in love with her .-' But it was
too late to mend matters ; it was fated to be so.
" Merciful Heaven ! is it possible that I myself must
tell him," she thought, — "I must tell him that I don't
love him } That is not true ! But what can I say .''
That I love another.? No, that is impossible. I will
run away, I will run away ! "
She had already reached the door, when she heard his
step. " No, it is not honorable. What have I to fear .?
I have done nothing wrong. Let come what will, I will
tell the truth ! I shall not be ill at ease with him. Ah,
here he is ! " she said to herself, as she saw his strong
but timid countenance, with his brilliant eyes fixed upon
her. She looked him full in the face, with an air which
seemed to implore his protection, and extended her
hand.
" I am rather early, too early, I am afraid," said he,
casting a glance about the empty room ; and when he
saw that his hope was fulfilled, and that nothing would
prevent him from speaking, his face grew solemn.
" Oh, no ! " said Kitty, sitting down near a table.
" But it is exactly what I wanted, so that I might find
you alone," he began, without sitting, and without look-
ing at her, lest he should lose his courage.
" Mamma will be here in a moment. She was very
tired to-day. To-day .... "
She spoke without knowing what her lips said, and
did not take her imploring and gentle gaze from his
face.
Levin gazed at her ; she blushed, and stopped speak-
ing.
" I told you to-day that I did not know how long I
should stay .... that it depended on you .... "
ANNA KARENINA 63
Kitty drooped her head lower and lower, not know-
ing how she should reply to the words that he was going
to speak.
"That it depended upon you," he repeated. "I
meant .... I meant .... I came for this, that .... be my wife,"
he murmured, not knowing what he had said ; but, feel-
ing that he had got through the worst of the difficulty,
he stopped and looked at her.
She felt almost suffocated ; she did not raise her head.
She felt a sort of ecstasy. Her heart was full of happi-
ness. Never could she have believed that the declara-
tion of his love would make such a deep impression
upon her. But this impression lasted only a moment.
She remembered Vronsky. She raised her sincere and
liquid eyes to Levin, and, seeing his agitated face, said
hastily : —
" This cannot be ! .... Forgive me ! "
How near to him, a moment since, she had been, and
how necessary to his life ! and now how far away and
strange she suddenly seemed to be !
" It could not have been otherwise," he said, without
looking at her.
He bowed and was about to leave the room.
CHAPTER XIV
At this instant the princess entered. Apprehension
was pictured on her face when she saw their agitated
faces and that they had been alone. Levin bowed low,
and did not speak. Kitty was silent, and did not raise
her eyes. " Thank God, she has refused him ! " thought
the mother ; and her face lighted up with the smile with
which she always received her Thursday guests. She
sat down, and began to ask Levin questions about his
life in the country. He also sat down, hoping to escape
unobserved when the guests began to arrive.
Five minutes later, one of Kitty's friends, who had
been married the winter before, was announced, — the
64 ANNA KARENINA
Countess Nordstone. She was a dried-up, sallow, ner-
vous, sickly woman, with brilliant black eyes. She was
fond of Kitty, and her affection, like that of every mar-
ried woman for a young girl, was expressed by a keen
desire to have her married in accordance with her own
ideal of conjugal happiness. She wanted to marry her
to Vronsky. Levin, whom she had often met at the
Shcherbatskys' the first of the winter, was always dis-
tasteful to her, and her favorite occupation, after she
had met him in society, was to make sport of him.
"I am enchanted," she said, "when he looks down
on me from his loftiness ; either he fails to honor me
with his learned conversation because I am too silly
for him, or else he treats me condescendingly. I like
this ; condescending to me ! I am very glad that he
cannot endure me."
She was right, because the fact was that Levin could
not endure her, and he despised her for being proud of
what she regarded as a merit, — her nervous tempera-
ment, her indifference and delicate scorn for all that
seemed to her gross and material.
The relationship between Levin and the Countess
Nordstone was such as is often met with in society
where two persons, friends in outward appearance,
despise each other to such a degree that they cannot
hold a serious conversation, or even clash with each
other.
The Countess Nordstone instantly addressed herself
to Levin : —
" Ah, Konstantin Dmitrievitch ! are you back again
in our abominable Babylon ? " said she, giving him her
little yellow hand, and recalling his owit words at the
beginning of the winter when he said Moscow was a
Babylon. "Is Babylon converted, or have you been
corrupted ? " she added, with a mocking smile in Kitty's
direction.
" I am greatly flattered, countess, that you remember
my words so well," replied Levin, who, having had time
to collect his thoughts, instantly entered into the face-
tiously hostile tone peculiar to his relations with the
ANNA KARENINA 65
Countess Nordstone. " It seems that they have made
a very deep impression on you."
" Akh ! how so ? But I always make notes. Well !
how is it, Kitty, have you been skating to-day.?"....
And she began to talk with her young friend.
Awkward as it was in him to take his departure now,
Levin preferred to commit this breach of etiquette
rather than remain through the evening, and to see
Kitty, who occasionally looked at him, though she
avoided his eyes. He attempted to get up; but the
princess, noticing that he had nothing to say, addressed
him directly : —
" Do you intend to remain long in Moscow } You
are justice of the peace in your district, are you not?
and I suppose that will prevent you from making a
long stay."
"No, princess, I have resigned that office," he, said.
" I have come to stay several days."
" Something has happened to him," thought the
Countess Nordstone, as she saw Levin's stern and seri-
ous face, " because he does not launch out into his usual
tirades ; but I '11 soon draw him out. Nothing amuses
me more than to make him ridiculous before Kitty, and
I '11 do it."
" Konstantin Dmitritch," she said to him, "explain
to me, please, what this means, for you know all about
it : at our estate in Kaluga all the muzhiks and their
wives have drunk up everything they had, and don't
pay what they owe us. You are always praising the
muzhiks ; what does this mean ? "
At this moment another lady came in, and Levin arose.
" Excuse me, countess, I know nothing at all about
it, and I cannot answer your question," said he, look-
ing at an officer who entered at the same time with the
lady.
" That must be Vronsky," he thought, and to confirm
his surmise he glanced at Kitty. She had already had
time to perceive Vronsky, and she was looking at Levin.
When he saw the young girl's involuntarily brightening
eyes, Levin saw that she loved that man, he saw it as
VOL. I. — s
66 ANNA KARENINA
clearly as if she herself had confessed it to him. But
what sort of a man was he ?
Now — whether it was wise or foolish — Levin could
not help remaining ; he must find out for himself what
sort of a man it was that she loved.
There are men who, on meeting a fortunate rival, are
immediately disposed to deny that there is any good in
him and see only evil in him ; others, on the contrary,
endeavor to discover nothing but the merits that have
won him his success, and with sore hearts to attribute
to him nothing but good. Levin belonged to the latter
class. It was not hard for him to discover what amiable
and attractive qualities Vronsky possessed. They were
apparent at a glance. He was dark, of medium stature,
and well proportioned ; his face was handsome, calm,
and friendly ; everything about his person, from his
black, short-cut hair, and his freshly shaven chin, to his
new, well-fitting uniform, was simple and perfectly ele-
gant. Vronsky allowed the lady to pass before him,
then he approached the princess, and finally came to
Kitty. As he drew near her, his beautiful eyes shone
with deeper tenderness, and with a smile expressive of
joy mingled with triumph, — so it seemed to Levin, —
he bowed respectfully and with dignity and offered her
his small, wide hand. After greeting them all and speak-
ing a few words, he sat down without having seen Levin,
who never once took his eyes from him.
" Allow me to make you acquainted," said the prin-
cess, turning to Levin : " Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin,
Count Alekseif Kirillovitch Vronsky."
Vronsky arose, and, with a friendly look into Levin's
eyes, shook hands with him.
" It seems," said he, with his frank and pleasant
smile, " that I was to have had the honor of dining with
you this winter ; but you went off unexpectedly to the
country."
" Konstantin Dmitritch despises and shuns the city,
and us, its denizens," said the Countess Nordstone.
" It must be that my words impress you deeply, since
you remember them so well," said Levin; and, perceiv-
i
ANNA KARENINA 6j
ing that he had already made this remark, he grew red
in the face.
Vronsky looked at Levin and the countess, and smiled.
" So, then, you always live in the country ? " he asked.
" I should think it would be tiresome in winter."
" Not if one has enough to do ; besides, one does not
get tired of himself," said Levin, sharply.
"I like the country," said Vronsky, noticing Levin's
tone and appearing not to notice it.
" But, count, I hope you would not consent to live
always in the country," said the Countess Nordstone.
" I don't know ; I never made a long stay, but I once
felt a strange sensation," he added. " Never have I so
eagerly longed for the country, the real Russian country
with its bast shoes and its muzhiks, as during the winter
that I spent at Nice with my mother. Nice, you know,
is melancholy anyway ; and Naples, Sorrento, are pleas-
ant only for a short time. There it is that one remembers
Russia most tenderly, and especially the country. They
are almost as .... "
He spoke, now addressing Kitty, now Levin, turning
his calm and friendly eyes from one to the other, and he
evidently said whatever came into his head.
Noticing that the Countess Nordstone wanted to say
something, he stopped, without finishing his phrase, and
began to listen to her attentively.
The conversation did not languish a single instant, so
that the old princess, who always had in reserve two
heavy guns, in case there needed to be a change in the
conversation, — namely, classic and scientific education,
and the general compulsory conscription, — had no need
to bring them out, and the Countess Nordstone did not
even have a chance to rally Levin.
Levin wanted to join in the general conversation, but
was unable. He kept saying to himself, " Now, I '11
go ; " and still he waited as if he expected something.
The conversation turned on table-tipping and spirits ;
and the Countess Nordstone, who was a believer in
spiritism, began to relate the marvels that she had
seen.
68 ANNA KARENINA
" Akh, countess ! in the name of Heaven, take me to
see them. I never yet saw anything extraordinary,
anxious as I have always been," said Vronsky, smiling.
" Good ; next Saturday," replied the countess. " But
you, Konstantin Dmitritch, do you believe in it ,'' " she
asked of Levin.
" Why do you ask me ? You know perfectly well" what
I shall say."
" Because I wanted to hear your opinion."
" My opinion is simply this," replied Levin : " that
table-tipping proves that so-called cultivated society is
scarcely more advanced than the muzhiks ; they believe
in the evil eye, in casting lots, in sorceries, while we .... "
"That means that you don't believe in it.'' "
" I cannot believe in it, countess."
" But if I myself have seen these things ? "
" The peasant women also say that they have seen the
Do mo VOL ^
"Then, you think that I do not tell the truth.?"
And she broke into an unpleasant laugh.
" But no, Masha. Konstantin Dmitritch simply says
that he cannot believe in spiritism," said Kitty, blushing
for Levin ; and Levin understood her, and, growing still
more irritated, was about to reply; but Vronsky instantly
came to the rescue, and with a gentle smile brought
back the conversation, which threatened to go beyond
the bounds of politeness.
" Do not you admit at all the possibility of its being
true.?" he asked. "Why not.? We willingly admit the
existence of electricity, which we do not understand.
Why should there not exist a new force, as yet unknown,
which...."
" When electricity was discovered," interrupted Levin,
eagerly, "only its phenomena had been seen, and it was
not known what produced them, or whence they arose;
and centuries passed before people dreamed of making
application of it. Spiritualists, on the other hand, have
^ The Domovol is the house-spirit, like the latin lar, who lives behind
the stove, and when propitiated by cream and colored eggs is beneficent,
but if offended may play disagreeable tricks. — Tr.
ANNA KARENINA 69
begun by making tables write, and by summoning spirits
to them, and it is only afterward they began to say it is
an unknown force."
Vronsky listened attentively, as he always listened, and
was evidently interested in Levin's words.
" Yes; but the spiritualists say, ' We do not yet know
what this force is, but it is a force, and acts under certain
conditions.' Let the scientists find out what it is. I
don't see why it may not be a new force if it.... "
"Because," interrupted Levin again, "every time you
rub resin with wool, you produce a certain and invariable
electrical phenomenon ; while spiritism brings no such
invariable result, and so it cannot be a natural phe-
nomenon."
Vronsky, evidently perceiving that the conversation
was growing too serious for a reception, made no reply ;
and, in order to make a diversion, smiled gayly, and ad-
dressing the ladies said : —
" Countess, let us make the experiment now ? "
But Levin wanted to finish saying what was in his
mind : —
" I think," he continued, " that the attempts made by
spiritual mediums to explain their miracles by a new
force is most abortive. They claim that it is a super-
natural force, and yet they want to submit it to a material
test."
All were waiting for him to come to an end, and he
felt it.
" And I think that you would be a capital medium,"
said the Countess Nordstone. " There is something so
enthusiastic about you ! "
Levin opened his mouth to speak, but he said nothing,
and turned red.
" Come, let us give the tables a trial," said Vronsky ;
"with your permission, princess." And Vronsky rose,
and looked for a small table.
Kitty was standing by a table, and her eyes met
Levin's. Her whole soul pitied him, because she felt
that she was the cause of his pain. Her look said,
" Forgive me, if you can, I am so happy."
70 ANNA KARENINA
And his look replied, " I hate the whole world, — you
and myself." And he took up his hat.
But it was not his fate to go. The guests were just
taking their places around the table, and he was on the
point of starting, when the old prince entered, and, after
greeting the ladies, went straight to Levin.
" Ah! " he cried joyfully. " What a stranger ! I did
not know that you were here. Very glad to see you ! "
In speaking to Levin the prince sometimes used the
familiar tiii, thou, and sometimes the formal vuiy you.
He took him by the arm, and, while conversing with him,
gave no notice to Vronsky, who stood waiting patiently
for the prince to speak to him.
Kitty felt that her father's friendliness must be hard
for Levin after what had happened. She also noticed
how coldly her father at last acknowledged Vronsky's
bow, and how Vronsky looked at her father, with good-
humored perplexity striving in vain to make out what
this icy reception meant, and she blushed.
" Prince, let us have Konstantin Dmitritch," said the
Countess Nordstone. " We want to try an experiment."
"What sort of an experiment.'^ table-tipping.? Well!
excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but, in my opinion,
grace-hoops^ would be a better game," said the prince,
looking at Vronsky, whom he took to be the originator
of this sport. " At least there's some sense in grace-
hoops."
Vronsky, astonished, turned his steady eyes upon the
old prince, and, slightly smiling, began to talk with the
Countess Nordstone about the arrangements for a great
ball to be given the following week.
" I hope that you will be there," said he, turning to
Kitty.
As soon as the old prince turned from him Levin
made his escape; and the last impression which he bore
away from this reception was Kitty's happy, smiling
face, answering Vronsky's question in regard to the
ball.
1 Kaletchki.
ANNA KARENINA 71
CHAPTER XV
After the guests had gone, Kitty told her mother of
her conversation with Levin; and, in spite of all the
pain that she had caused him, the thought that he had
asked her to marry him flattered her. She had no
doubt that she had acted properly, but it was long be-
fore she could go to sleep. One memory constantly
arose in her mind: it was Levin's face as, with con-
tracted brow, he stood listening to her father, looking
at her and Vronsky with his gloomy, melancholy, kind
eyes. She felt so sorry for him that she could not keep
back the tears. But, as she thought of him who had
replaced Levin in her regards, she saw vividly his
handsome, strong, and manly face, his aristocratic self-
possession, his universal kindness to every one; she re-
called his love for her, and how she loved him, and joy
came back to her heart. She laid her head on the pil-
low, and smiled with happiness.
" It is too bad, too bad; but what can I do."* It is not
my fault," she said to herself, although an inward voice
whispered the contrary. She did not know whether she
ought to reproach herself for having been attracted to
Levin, or for having refused him; but her happiness
was not alloyed with doubts. " Lord, have mercy upon
me! Lord, have mercy upon me! Lord, have mercy
upon me! " she repeated until she went to sleep.
Meantime, down-stairs, in the prince's little library,
there was going on one of those scenes which fre-
quently occurred between the parents in regard to their
favorite daughter.
"What.'' This is what!" cried the prince, waving his
arms and immediately wrapping around him his squirrel-
skin khalat. "You have neither pride nor dignity; you
are ruining your daughter with this low and ridiculous
manner of husband-hunting."
" But in the name of Heaven, prince, what have I
done? " said the princess, almost ready to cry.
7% ANNA KARENINA
She had come as usual to say good-night to her hus-
band, feeling very happy and satisfied over her con-
versation with her daughter ; and, though she had not
ventured to breathe a word of Levin's proposal and
Kitty's rejection of him, she allowed herself to hint to
her husband that she thought the affair with Vronsky
was settled, that it would be decided as soon as the
countess should arrive. At these words the prince had
fallen into a passion, and had addressed her with un-
pleasant reproaches: — ■
"What have you done? This is what: In the first
place you have decoyed a husband for her; and all
Moscow will say so, and with justice. If you want to
give receptions, give them, by all means, but invite
every one, and not suitors of your own choice. Invite
all these mashers," — thus the prince called the young
men of Moscow, — "have somebody to play and let 'em
dance; but not like to-night, inviting only suitors! It
seems to me shameful, shameful, the way you've pushed !
You have turned the girl's head. Levin is a thousand
times the better man. And as to this Petersburg dandy,
he 's one of those turned out by machinery, they are all
on one pattern, and all trash! My daughter has no
need of going out of her way, even for a prince of the
blood."
" But what have I done ? "
"Why, this.... " cried the prince, angrily.
" I know well enough that, if I listen to you," inter-
rupted the princess, " we shall never see our daughter
married; and, in that case, we might just as well go
into the country."
"We'd better go!"
" Now wait ! Have I made any advances ? No, I
have not. But a young man, and a very handsome
young man, is in love with her; and she, it seems...."
" Yes, so it seems to you. But suppose she should
be in love with him, and he have as much intention
of getting married as I myself .'' Okh ! Have n't I
eyes to see .-• ' Akh, spiritism ! akh, Nice ! akh, the
ball ! ' " .... Here the prince, attempting to imitate his
ANNA KARENINA 73
wife, made a courtesy at every word. " We shall be
very proud when we have made our Kationka unhappy,
and when she really takes it into her head..,."
" But what makes you think so .'' "
" I don't think so, I know so ; and that 's why we
have eyes, and you mothers have n't. I see a man
who has serious intentions, — Levin ; and I see a fine
bird, like this good-for-nothing, who is merely amusing
himself."
" Well ! now you have taken it into your head .... "
" You will remember what I have said, but too late,
as you did with Dashenka."
•' Very well, very well, we will not say anything more
about it," said the princess, who was cut short by the
remembrance of Dolly's unhappiness.
" So much the better, and good-night."
The husband and wife, as they separated, kissed
each other good-night, making the sign of the cross,
but with the consciousness that each remained un-
changed in opinion.
The princess had at first been firmly convinced that
Kitty's fate was decided by the events of the evening,
and that there could be no doubt of Vronsky's designs ;
but her husband's words troubled her. On her return
to her room, as she thought in terror of the unknown
future, she did just as Kitty had done, and prayed from
the bottom of her heart, " Lord, have mercy ! Lord,
have mercy ! Lord, have mercy ! "
CHAPTER XVI
Vronsky had never known anything of family life.
His mother, in her youth, had been a very brilliant
society woman, who, in her husband's lifetime and
after his death, had engaged in many love-affairs that
had made talk. Vronsky scarcely remembered his father,
and he had been educated in the School of Pages.
Graduating very young and with brilliancy as an
officer, he immediately began to follow the course of
74 ANNA KARENINA
wealthy militar}'^ men of Petersburg. Though he oc-
casionally went into general society, all his love-affairs
were with a different class.
At Moscow, after the luxurious, dissipated life of
Petersburg, he for the first time felt the charm of
familiar intercourse with a lovely, innocent society
girl, who was evidently in love with him. It never
occurred to him that there might be anything wrong
in his relations with Kitty. At balls he preferred to
dance with her, he called on her, talked with her as
people generally talk in society : all sorts of trifles,
but trifles to which he involuntarily attributed a differ-
ent meaning when spoken to her. Although he never
said anything to her which he would not have said in
the hearing of others, he was conscious that she kept
growing more and more dependent on him ; and, the
more he felt this consciousness, the pleasanter it was
to him, and his feeling toward her grew warmer and
warmer. He did not know that his behavior toward
Kitty had a definite name, that this way of leading
on young girls without any intention of marriage is
one of the most dishonorable tricks practised among
the members of the brilliant circles of society in which
he moved. He simply imagined that he had discovered
a new pleasure, and he enjoyed his discovery.
Could he have heard the conversation between Kitty's
parents that evening, could he have taken the family
point of view and realized that Kitty would be made
unhappy if he did not propose to her, he would have
been amazed and would not have believed it. He
would not have believed that what gave him and her
such a great delight could be wrong, still less that it
brought any obligation to marry.
He had never considered the possibility of his getting
married. Not only was family life distasteful to him,
but, from his view as a bachelor, the family, and espe-
cially the husband, belonged to a strange, hostile, and,
worst of all, ridiculous world. But though Vronsky had
not the slightest suspicion of the conversation of which
he had been the subject, he left the Shcherbatskys' with
ANNA KARENINA 75
the feeling that the mysterious bond that attached him
to Kitty was closer than ever, so close, indeed, that he
felt that he must do something. But what he ought
to do or could do he could not imagine.
" How charming ! " he thought, as he went to his
rooms, feeling, as he always felt when he left the
Shcherbatskys', a deep impression of purity and fresh-
ness, arising partly from the fact that he had not
smoked all the evening, and a new sensation of ten-
derness caused by her love for him. " How charming
that, without either of us saying anything, we under-
stand each other so perfectly through this mute lan-
guage of glances and tones, so that to-day more than
ever before she told me that she loves me ! And how
lovely, natural, and, above all, confidential, she was !
I feel that I myself am better, purer. I feel that I
have a heart, and that there is something good in me.
Those gentle, lovely eyes ! When she said.... Well!
what did she say ? .... Nothing much, but it was pleas-
ant for me, and pleasant for her."
And he reflected how he could best finish up the
evening. He passed in review the places where he
might go : " The ' club,' a hand of bezique and some
champagne with Ignatof .-' No, not there. The Chateau
des Fleurs, to find Oblonsky, songs, and the cancan f
No, it 's a bore. And this is just why I like the Shcher-
batskys, — because I feel better for having been there.
I '11 go home ! "
He went to his room at Dusseaux's, ordered supper,
and then, having undressed, he had scarcely touched his
head to the pillow before he was sound asleep.
CHAPTER XVII
The next morning, about eleven o'clock, Vronsky went
to the station to meet his mother on the Petersburg train ;
and the first person he saw on the grand staircase was
Oblonsky, who was expecting his sister on the same
train
76 ANNA KARENINA
" Ah ! your excellency," cried Oblonsky, " are you
expecting some one ? "
" My matushka," replied Vronsky, with the smile with
which people always met Oblonsky. And, after shak-
ing hands, they mounted the staircase side by side.
" She was to come from Petersburg to-day."
" I waited for you till two o'clock this morning.
Where did you go after leaving the Shcherbatskys' .'' "
"Home," replied Vronsky. "To tell the truth, after
such a pleasant evening at the Shcherbatskys', I did not
feel like going anywhere."
" I know fiery horses by their brand, and young people
who are in love by their eyes," said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
in the same dramatic tone in which he had spoken to
Levin the afternoon before.
Vronsky smiled, as much as to say that he did not
deny it ; but he hastened to change the conversation.
" And whom have you to meet ? " he asked.
" I .'' a very pretty woman," said Oblonsky.
"Ah! indeed!"
" Ifom soit qui inal y pense ! My sister Anna ! "
" Akh ! Madame Karenina ! " exclaimed Vronsky.
" Do you know her, then .-' "
"It seems to me that I do. Or, no.... the truth is, I
don't think I do," replied Vronsky, somewhat confused.
The name Karenin dimly brought to his mind a tiresome
and conceited person.
" But Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, my celebrated brother-
in-law, you must know him ! Every one knows him."
" That is, I know him by reputation, and by sight. I
know that he is talented, learned, and rather adorable
....but you know that he is no\.....not in my line" said
Vronsky in English.
" Yes ; he is a very remarkable man, somewhat con-
servative, but a splendid man," replied Stepan Arkadye-
vitch. " A splendid man."
"Well! so much the better for him," said Vronsky,
smiling. "Ah! here you are," he cried, seeing his
mother's old lackey standing at the door. " Come this
way," he added.
ANNA KARENINA 77
Vronsky, besides experiencing the pleasure that every-
body felt in seeing Stepan Arkadyevitch, had felt espe-
cially drawn to him, because, in a certain way, it brought
him closer to Kitty.
" Well, now, what do you say to giving the diva a
supper Sunday ? " said he, with a smile, taking him by
the arm.
" Certainly ; I will pay my share. Oh, tell me, did
you meet my friend Levin last evening ? " asked Stepan
Arkadyevitch.
" Yes, but he went away very early."
" He is a glorious young fellow," said Oblonsky, " is n't
he ? "
"I don't know why it is," replied Vronsky, "but all
the Muscovites, present company excepted," he added
jestingly, " have something sharp about them. They
all seem to be high-strung, fiery tempered, as if they all
wanted to make you understand .... "
"That is true enough; there is...." replied Stepan
Arkadyevitch, smiling pleasantly.
"Is the train on time ? " asked Vronsky of an em-
ployee.
" It will be here directly," replied the employee.
The increasing bustle in the station, the coming and
going of porters, the appearance of policemen and offi-
cials, the arrival of expectant friends, all indicated the
approach of the train. Through the frosty steam, work-
men could be seen passing in their soft blouses and felt
boots amid the network of rails. The whistle of the
coming engine was heard, and the approach of some-
thing heavy.
" No," continued Stepan Arkadyevitch, who was anx-
ious to inform Vronsky of Levin's intentions in regard
to Kitty. " No, you are really unjust to my friend Levin.
He is a very nervous man, and sometimes he can be dis-
agreeable ; but, on the other hand, he can be very charm-
ing. He is such an upright, genuine nature, true gold !
Last evening there were special reasons," continued
Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a significant smile, and en-
tirely forgetting his genuine sympathy, which the even-
78 ANNA KARENINA
ing before he had felt for his old friend, and now
experiencing the same sympathy for Vronsky. " Yes,
there was a reason why he should have been either
very happy or very unhappy."
Vronsky stopped short, and asked point-blank : —
" What was it ? Do you mean that he proposed yes-
terday evening to your sister-in-law ? "
" Possibly," replied Stepan Arkadyevitch. " Something
like that seemed probable last evening. Yes, if he
went off so early, and was in such bad spirits, then it
is so He has been in love with her for so long, and
I am very sorry for him."
" Ah, indeed ! .... I thought that she might, however,
have aspirations for a better match," said Vronsky, and,
filling out his chest, he began to walk up and down again.
Then he added : " However, I don't know him ; yes,
this promises to be a painful situation. That is why the
majority of men prefer to consort with their Claras.
There, lack of success shows that you have n't money
enough ; but here you stand on your own merits. But
here is the train."
In fact, the engine was now whistling some distance
away. But in a few minutes the platform shook, and
the locomotive, puffing out the steam condensed by the
cold air, came rolling into the station, with the lever
of the central wheel slowly and rhythmically rising and
falling, and the engineer well muffled and covered with
frost. Next the tender came the baggage-car, still more
violently shaking the platform ; a dog in its cage was
yelping piteously ; finally appeared the passenger-cars,
which jolted together as the train came to a stop.
The vigorous-looking conductor sprang down from the
car and whistled ; and behind him came the more impa-
tient of the travelers, — an officer of the Guard, straight
and imperious, a nimble little merchant, gayly smiling,
with his gripsack, and a muzhik, with his bundle over
his shoulder.
Vronsky, standing near Oblonsky, watched the cars
and the passengers, and completely forgot his mother.
What he had just heard about Kitty caused him emotion
ANNA KARENINA 79
and joy; he involuntarily straightened himself; his eyes
glistened ; he felt that he had won a victory.
" The Countess Vronskaya is in that compartment,"
said the vigorous conductor, approaching him. These
words awoke him from his reverie, and brought his
thoughts back to his mother and their approaching
meeting. In his soul he did not respect his mother, and,
without ever having confessed as much to himself, he
did not love her. But his education and the usages of
the society in which he lived did not allow him to admit
that there could be in his relations with her the
slightest want of consideration. But the more he ex-
aggerated the bare outside forms, the less he felt in his
heart that he respected or loved her.
CHAPTER XVIII
Vronsky followed the conductor, and, as he was
about to enter the railway-carriage, he stood aside to
allow a lady to pass him.
With the instant intuition of a man of the world, he
saw, by a single glance at this lady's exterior, that she
belonged to the very best society. Begging her pardon,
he was about to enter the door, but involuntarily he
turned to give another look at the lady, not because she
was very beautiful, not because of that elegance and that
unassuming grace which were expressed in her whole
person, but because the expression of her lovely face, as
she passed, seemed to him so gentle and sweet.
Just as he looked back at her, she also turned her
head. Her brilliant gray eyes, looking almost black
under the long lashes, rested on his face with a friendly,
attentive look, as if she recognized him ; and instantly
she turned to seek some one in the throng.
Quick as this glance was, Vronsky had time to per-
ceive the dignified vivacity which played in her facc/i ^^.
and fluttered between her shining eyes, and the scarcely 7' ir^
perceptible smile parting her rosy lips. There seemed ^**-f Hu,
to be in her whole person such a superfluity of life '
8o ANNA KARENINa
that, in spite of her will, it expressed itself now in the
lightning of her eyes, now in her smile. She demurely
veiled the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will
in her scarcely perceptible smile.
Vronsky went into the carriage. His mother, a dried-
up old lady with black eyes and little curls, screwed up her
face as she looked at him with a slight smile on her thin
lips. Getting up from her chair, and handing her bag
to her maid, she extended her little thin hand to her son,
and, pushing his head from her, kissed him on the brow.
" You received my telegram ? You are well.'' Thank
the Lord ! "
" Did you have a comfortable journey .'' " said the son,
sitting down near her, and yet involuntarily listening to
a woman's voice just outside the door. He knew that
it was the voice of the lady whom he had met.
" However, I don't agree with you," said the lady's
voice.
•" It is the Petersburg way of looking at it, madam."
" Not at all, but simply a woman's," was her reply.
"Well! allow me to kiss your hand."
" Good-by, Ivan Petrovitch. Now look and see if my
brother is here, and send him to me," said the lady, at
the very door, and reentering the compartment.
" Have you found your brother } " asked the Countess
Vronskaya, addressing the lady.
Vronsky now knew that it was Karenin's wife.
"Your brother is here," he said, rising. "Excuse
me ; I did not recognize you ; but our acquaintance was
so short," he added with a bow, " that you naturally did
not remember me either."
" Oh, yes, I did ! " she said. " I should have known
you because your matushka and I have been talking
about you all the way." And at last she permitted the
animation which had been striving to break forth to
express itself in a smile. " But my brother has not
come yet."
" Go and call him, Alyosha," said the old countess,
Vronsky went out on the platform and called : —
"Oblonsky! here!"
ANNA KARENINA 8l
But Karenin's wife did not wait for her brother ; as
soon as she saw him she ran Hghtly out of the carriage,
went straight to him, and, with a gesture which struck
Vronsky by its grace and energy, threw her left arm
around his neck and kissed him affectionately.
Vronsky could not keep his eyes from her face, and
smiled, without knowing why. But, remembering that
his mother was waiting for him, he went back into the
carriage.
" Very charming, is n't she ? " said the countess, re-
ferring to Madame Karenina. " Her husband put her
in my charge, and I was very glad. She and I talked
together all the way. Well ! and you .-• They say
you are desperately in love. So much the better, my
dear, so much the better."
" I don't know what you allude to, maman ," replied
the son, coldly. "Come, fnavmuy let us go."
At this moment Madame Karenina came back to take
leave of the countess.
" Well, countess ! you have found your son, and I my
brother," she said gayly; "and I have exhausted my
whole fund of stories. I should n't have had anything
more to talk about."
"Ah ! not so," said the countess, taking her hand.
" I should not object to travel round the world with
you. You are one of those agreeable women with whom
either speech or silence is pleasant. As to your son,
I beg of you, don't think about him : we must have
separations in this world."
. Madame Karenina stood motionless, holding herself
very erect, and her eyes smiled.
" Anna Arkadyevna has a little boy about eight years
old," said the countess, in explanation to her son ; " she
has never been separated from him before, and it troubles
her to leave him."
" Yes, we have talked about our children all the time,
— the countess of her son, I of mine," said Madame
Karenina, turning to Vronsky ; and again the smile
lighted up her face, the caressing smile which beamed
upon him.
82 ANNA KARENINA
" That must have been very tiresome to you," said he,
instantly catching on the rebound the ball of coquetry
which she had tossed to him. But she evidently did
not care to continue her conversation in the same tone,
but turned to the old countess : —
" Thank you very much. I don't see where the time
has gone. Good-by, countess."
" Farewell, my dear," replied the countess. " Let
me kiss your pretty little face. I tell you frankly, as it
is permitted an old lady, that I am in love with you."
Hackneyed as this expression was, Madame Karenina
evidently believed thoroughly in its sincerity, and was
pleased with it. She blushed, bowed slightly, and bent
her face down to the old countess's lips. Then, straight-
ening herself up, she gave her hand to Vronsky with
the smile that seemed to belong as much to her eyes as
to her lips. He pressed her little hand, and, as if it
were something unusual, was delighted with the energetic
jfirmness with which she frankly and fearlessly shook his
hand.
Madame Karenina went out with light and rapid
step, carrying her rather plump person with remarkable
elasticity.
" Very charming," said the old lady again.
Her son was of the same opinion; and again his eyes
followed her graceful figure till she was out of sight, and
a smile rested on his face. Through the window he saw
her join her brother, take his arm, and engage him in
lively conversation, evidently about some subject with
which Vronsky had no connection, and this seemed to
him annoying.
" Well ! are you enjoying perfectly good health,
mamaft ? " he asked, turning to his mother.
"Very well, indeed, splendid. Alexandre has been
charming, and Marie has been very good. She is very
interesting."
And again she began to speak of wha.t was especially
interesting to her heart, — the baptism of her grandson,
for which she had come to Moscow, and the special
favor shown her eldest son by the emperor.
ANNA KARENINA 83
" And here is Lavronty," said Vronsky, looking out of
the window. " Now let us go, if you are ready."
The old steward who had come with the countess
now appeared at the door to report that everything was
ready, and she arose to go.
"Come, there are only a few people about now," said
Vronsky.
The maid took the bag and the little dog ; the stew-
ard and a porter carried the other luggage ; Vronsky
offered his mother his arm, but, just as they stepped
down from the carriage, a number of men with fright-
ened faces ran hastily by them. The station-master
followed in his curiously Qo\oxQdift(razhka or uniform-cap.
Evidently something unusual had happened. The peo-
ple who had left the train were coming back again.
"What is it.?".... "What is it .?".... "Where .?" ....
" He was thrown down ! " ...." He was crushed to death ! "
were the exclamations heard among those hurrying by.
Stepan Arkadyevitch with his sister on his arm had
returned with the others, and were standing with fright-
ened faces near the train to avoid the crush.
The ladies went back into the carriage, and Vronsky
with Stepan Arkadyevitch went with the crowd to learn
the particulars of the accident.
A train-hand, either from drunkenness, or because he
was too closely muffled against the intense cold, had not
heard the noise of a train that was backing out, and had
been crushed.
The ladies had already learned about the accident
from the steward before Vronsky and Oblonsky came
back. Both of them had seen the disfigured body.
Oblonsky was deeply moved ; he frowned, and seemed
ready to shed tears.
" Akh, how horrible ! Akh, Anna, if you had only
seen it ! Akh, how horrible ! " he repeated.
Vronsky said nothing ; his handsome face was serious,
but perfectly calm.
" Akh, if you had only seen it, countess ! " continued
Stepan Arkadyevitch, — "and his wife is there It
was terrible to see her .... she threw herself on his body.
^ ANNA KARENINA
They say that he was the only support of a large
family. How terrible ! "
" Could anything be done for her ? " said Madame
Karenina, in an agitated whisper.
Vronsky looked at her, and immediately left the car-
riage.
" I will be right back, maman," said he, turning round
at the door.
When he came back, at the end of a few minutes,
Stepan Arkadyevitch was talking with the countess
about a new singer, and she was impatiently watching
the door for her son.
" Now let us go," said Vronsky,
They all went out together, Vronsky walking ahead
with his mother, Madame Karenina and her brother
side by side. At the door the station-master overtook
them, and said to Vronsky : —
" You have given my assistant two hundred rubles.
Will you kindly indicate the disposition that we shall
make of them ? "
" For his widow," said Vronsky, shrugging his shoul-
der?. " I don't see why you should have asked me."
" Did you give that.? " asked Oblonsky ; and, pressing
his sister's arm, he said, " Very kind, very kind. Glo-
rious fellow, is n't he ? My best wishes, countess."
He and his sister delayed, looking for her maid.
When they left the station, the Vronskys' carriage had
already gone. People on all sides were talking about
what had happened.
•* What a horrible way of dying ! " said a gentleman,
passing near them. " They say he was cut in two."
-■ It seems to me, on the contrary," replied another,
" that it was a very easy way ; death was instan-
taneous,"
" Why were n't there any precautions taken .-' " asked
a third.
Madame Karenina sat down in the carriage ; and
Stepan Arkadyevitch noticed, with astonishment, that
her lips trembled, and that she could hardly keep back
the tears.
ANNA KARENINA 85
"What is the matter, Anna ? " he asked, when they
had gone a little distance.
" It is an evil omen," she answered.
"What nonsense! " said Stepan Arkadyevitch. "You
have come .... that is the main thing. You cannot itnAg-
ine how much I hope from your visit."
" Have you known Vronsky long ? " she asked.
"Yes. You know we hope that he will marry
Kitty."
"Really," said Anna, gentiy. "Well! now let us
talk about yourself," she added, shaking her head as if
she wanted to drive away something that troubled and
pained her physically. " Let us speak about your
affairs. I received your letter, and here I am."
" Yes, all my hope is in you," said Stepan Arka-
dyevitch.
" Well, then ! tell me all."
And Stepan Arkadyevitch began his story.
When they reached the house he helped his sister
from the carriage, sighed, shook hands with her, and
went to the court-house.
CHAPTER XIX
When Anna entered, Dolly was sitting in her little
reception-room, with a plump light-haired lad, the image
of his father, who was learning a lesson from a French
reading-book. The boy was reading aloud, and at the
same time twisting and trying to pull from his jacket
a button which was hanging loose. His mother had
many times reproved him, but the plump little hand
kept returning to the button. At last she had to take
the button off, and put it in her pocket.
"Keep your hands still, Grisha," said she, and again
took up the bed-quilt on which she had been long It
work, and which always came handy at trying moments.
She worked nervously, jerking her fingers and counting
the stitches. Though she had sent word to her hus-
band, the day before, that his sister's arrival made no
8.6 ANNA KARENINA
difference to her, nevertheless, she was ready to receive
her, and was waiting for her impatiently.
Dolly was absorbed by her woes, — absolutely swal-
lowed up by them. But she did not forget that her
sister-in-law, Anna, was the wife of one of the impor-
tant personages of Petersburg, — a Petersburg graiide
dame. And, owing to this fact, she did not carry out
what she had said to her husband ; in other words, she
did not forget that her sister was coming.
"After all, Anna is not to blame," she said to her-
self. " I know nothing about her that is not good, and
our relations have always been good and friendly."
To be sure, as far as she could recall the impressions
made on her by the Karenins, at Petersburg, their home
did not seem to her entirely pleasant ; there was some-
thing false in the whole manner of their family life.
" But why should I not receive her } Provided, only,
that she does not take it into her head to console me,"
thought Dolly. " I know what these Christian exhor-
tations, consolations, and justifications mean; I have
gone over them all a thousand times, and they amount to
nothing."
Dolly had spent these last days alone with her chil-
dren. She did not care to speak to any one about her
sorrow, and under the load of it she could not talk
about indifferent matters. She knew that some way or
other she should have to open her heart to Anna, and
at one moment the thought that she could open her
heart delighted her ; and then again she was angry
because she must speak of her humiliations before his
sister, and listen to her ready-made phrases of exhorta-
tion and consolation.
She had been expecting every moment to see her
sister-in-law appear, and had been watching the clock ;
but, as often happens in such cases, she became so ab-
sorbed in her thoughts that she did not hear the door
bell. Hearing light steps and the rustling of a gown,
she looked up, and involuntarily her jaded face expressed,
not pleasure, but surprise. She arose, and threw her
arms round her sister-in-law.
ANNA KARENINA 87
"Why ! have you come already ? " she cried, kissing her.
" Dolly, how glad I am to see you ! "
" And I am glad to see you," replied Dolly, with a
faint smile, and trying to read, by the expression of
Anna's face, how much she knew. " She knows all,"
was her thought, as she saw the look of compassion on
her features. " Well ! let us go up-stairs ; I will show
you to your room," she went on to say, trying to post-
pone, as long as possible, the time for explanations.
" Is this Grisha .-' Heavens ! how he has grown ! "
said Anna, kissing him. Then, not taking her eyes
from Dolly, she added, with a blush, " No, please let us
not go yet."
She took off her handkerchief and her hat, and when
it caught in the locks of her dark curly hair she shook
her head and released it.
" How brilliantly happy and healthy you look," said
Dolly, almost enviously.
" I .-^ ".... exclaimed Anna. "Ah !.... Heavens ! Tania!
is that you, the playmate of my little Serozha ? " said
she, speaking to a little girl who came running in.
She took her by the hand, and kissed her. " What a
charming little girl ! Charming ! But you must show
them all to me."
She recalled not only the name, the year, and the
month of each, but their characteristics and their little
ailments, and Dolly could not help feeling touched.
"Come! let us go and see them," said she; "but
Vasya is having her nap now ; it 's too bad."
After they had seen the children, they came back to
the sitting-room alone for coffee. Anna drew the tray
toward her, and then she pushed it away.
" Dolly," said she, "he has told me."
Dolly looked at Anna coldly. She now expected
some expression of hypocritical sympathy, but Anna
said nothing of the kind.
" Dolly, my dear," she said, " I do not intend to
speak to you in defense of him, nor to console you ; it
is impossible. But, dushenka, dear heart, I am sorry,
sorry for you with all my soul ! "
88 ANNA KARENINA
Under her long lashes her brilliant eyes suddenly filled
with tears. She drew closer, and with her energetic
little hand seized the hand of her sister-in-law. Dolly
did not repulse her, but her face still preserved its
forlorn expression.
" It is impossible to console me. After what has
happened, all is over for me, all is lost."
And she had hardly said these words ere her face
suddenly softened a little. Anna lifted to her lips the
thin, dry hand that she held, and kissed it.
" But, Dolly, what is to be done ? what is to be done ?
What is the best way to act in this frightful condition
of things? We must think about it."
" All is over! Nothing can be done ! " Dolly replied.
"And, what is worse than all, you must understand it,
is that I cannot leave him! the children! I am chained
to him I and I cannot live with him ! It is torture to see
him ! "
" Dolly, galubchik, he has told me ; but I should like
to hear your side of the story. Tell me all."
Dolly looked at her with a questioning expression.
Sympathy and the sincerest affection were depicted in
Anna's face.
" I should like to," she suddenly said. " But I shall
tell you everything from the very beginning. You know
how I was married. With the education that maman
gave me, I was not only innocent, I was stupid. I did
not know anything. I know they said husbands told
their wives all about their past lives ; but Stiva" —
she corrected herself, — " Stepan Arkadyevitch never
told me anything. You would not believe it, but, up to
the present time, I supposed that I was the only woman
with whom he was acquainted. Thus I lived eight years.
You see, I not only never suspected him of being un-
faithful to me, but I believed such a thing to be impossi-
ble. And with such ideas, imagine how I suffered when
I suddenly learned all this horror — all this dastardliness.
.... Understand me. To believe absolutely in his honor " ....
continued Dolly, struggling to keep back her sobs,
" and suddenly to find a letter .... a letter from him to
ANNA KARENINA 89
his mistress, to the gdvertiess of ffiy children. No ; this
is too cruel ! " She hastily took out her handkerchief, and
hid her face in It. " I might have been able to admit a
moment of temptation," she continued, after a moment's
pause ; " but this hypocrisy, this continual attempt to de-
ceive me .... and for whom f .... To continue to be my hus-
band, and yet have her.... It is frightful; you cannot
comprehend...."
"Oh, yes! I comprehend; I comprehend, my dear
Dolly," said Anna, squeezing her hand.
"And do you imagine that he appreciates all the
horror of my situation ? " continued Dolly. " Certainly
not ; he is happy and contented."
" Oh, no ! " interrupted Anna, warmly. " He is thor-
oughly repentant; he is overwhelmed with remorse.... "
" Is he capable of remorse.?" demanded Dolly, scru-
tinizing her sister-in-law's face.
" Yes ; I know him. I could not look at him without
feeling sorry for him. We both of us know him. He
is kind ; but he is proud, and now he is so humiliated !
What touched me most" — Anna knew well enough that
this would touch Dolly also — "are the two things that
pained him : In the first place, he was ashamed for the
children ; and secondly, because, loving you .... yes, yes,
loving you more than any one else in the world," — she
added vehemently, to prevent Dolly from interrupting
her, — " he has wounded you grievously, has almost
killed you. * No, no, she will never forgive me I ' he
keeps saying all the time."
Dolly looked straight beyond her sister as she lis-
tened.
" Yes, I understand that his position is terrible. The
guilty suffers more than the innocent, — if he knows
that he is the cause of all the unhappiness. But how
can I forgive him ? How can I be his wife again after
she has.... For me to live with him henceforth would
be torment all the more because I still love what I used
to love in him .... "
And the sobs prevented her from speaking.
But as if on purpose, each time, after she had become
90 ANNA KARENINA
a little calmer, she began again to speak of what hurt
her most cruelly.
" She is young, you see, she is pretty," she went on
to say. " Do you realize, Anna, for whom I have sacri-
ficed my youth, my beauty ? For him and his children !
I have worn myself out in his service, I have given him
the best that I had; and now, of course, some one
younger and fresher than I am is more pleasing to him.
They have, certainly, discussed me between them, —
or, worse, have insulted me with their silence, do you
understand .-' "
And again her jealousy flamed up in her eyes.
"And after this he will tell me.... What! could I
believe it .■' No, never ! it is all over, all that gave me
recompense for my sufferings, for my sorrows
Would you believe it ? just now I was teaching Grisha.
It used to be a pleasure to me; now it is a torment.
Why should I take the trouble .'' Why have I children }
It is terrible, because my whole soul is in revolt ; instead
of love, tenderness, I am filled with nothing but hate,
yes, hate ! I could kill him and .... "
" Dushenka ! Dolly ! I understand you ; but don't
torment yourself so ! You are too excited, too angry, to
see things in their right light."
Dolly grew calmer, and for a few moments neither
spoke.
" What is to be done, Anna .-" Consider and help me.
I have thought of everything, but I cannot see any way
out of it."
Anna herself did not see any, but her heart responded
to every word, to every expression in her sister-in-law's
face.
"I will tell you one thing," said she at last. "I am
his sister ; I know his character, his peculiarity of for-
getting everything," — she touched her forehead, — "this
peculiarity of his which is so conducive to sudden temp-
tation, but also to repentance. At the present moment,
he does not understand how it was possible for him to
have done what he did."
" Not so ! He does understand and he did under-
ANNA KARENINA 91
stand," interrupted Dolly. " But I .... you forget me ;
.... does that make the pain less for me .-' "
" Wait ! when he made his confession to me, I ac-
knowledge that I did not appreciate the whole horror
of your position. I saw only him and the fact that the
family was broken up. I was sorry for him ; but now
that I have been talking with you, I, as a woman, look
on it in a different light. I see your suffering, and I
cannot tell you how sorry I am. But, Dolly, dushenka,
while I fully appreciate your misfortune, there is one
thing which I do not know: I do not know.... I do not
know to what degree you still love him. You alone can
tell whether you love him enough to forgive him. If
you do, then forgive him."
" No," began Dolly ; but Anna interrupted her, kiss-
ing her hand again.
" I know the world better than you do," she said.
" I know how such men as Stiva look on these things.
You say that tJiey have discussed you between them.
Don't you believe it. These men can be unfaithful to
their marriage vows, but their homes and their wives
remain no less sacred in their eyes. Between these
women and their families, they draw a line of demar-
cation which is never crossed. I cannot understand how
it can be, but so it is."
" Yes, but he has kissed her.... "
" Wait, Dolly, dushenka ! I saw Stiva when he was
in love with you. I remember the time when he used
to come to me and talk about you with tears in his eyes.
I know to what a poetic height he raised you, and I
know that the longer he lived with you the more he
admired you. We always have smiled at his habit of
saying at every opportunity, ^Dolly is an extraordinary
woman.' You have been, and you always will be, an
object of adoration in his eyes, and this passion is not
a defection of his heart .... "
" But supposing this defection should be repeated .'' "
" It is impossible, as I think .... "
" Yes, but would you have forgiven him } "
" I don't know ; I can't say Yes, I could," said
91 ANNA KARENINA
Anna, after a moment's thought, apprehending the
gravity of the situation and weighing it in her mental
scales. " I could, I Could, I could ! Yes, I could for-
give him, but I should not be the sarrte ; but I should
forgive him, and I should forgive him in such a way
as to show that the past Was forgotten, absolutely for-
gotten." ....
"Well ! of course," interrupted Dolly, impetuously, as
if she was saying what she had said many times to her-
self — " otherwise it would not be forgiveness. If you
forgive, it must be absolutely, absolutely. — Well ! let
me show you to your room," said she, rising, and throw-
ing her arm around her sister-in-law.
" My dear, how glad I am that you came. My heart
is already lighter, much lighter."
CHAPTER XX
Anna spent the whole day at home, that is to say,
at the Oblonskys', and refused to see any callers, al-
though some of her friends, having learned of her
arrival, came to see her. The whole morning was
given to Dolly and the children. She sent a note to
her brother that he must dine at home.
" Come, God is merciful," she wrote.
Oblonsky accordingly dined at home. The conver-
sation was general, and his wife, when she spoke to
him, called him tui (thou), which had not been the case
before. The relations between husband and wife re-
mained cool, but nothing more was said about a separa-
tion, and Stepan Arkadyevitch saw the possibility of a
reconciliation.
Kitty came in soon after dinner. Her acquaintance
with Anna Arkadyevna was very slight, and she was
not without solicitude as to the welcome which she
would receive from this great Petersburg lady, whose
praise was in everybody's mouth. But she made a
pleasing impression on Anna Arkadyevna ; this she
immediately realized. Anna evidently admired her
ANNA KARENINA 93
youth and beauty, and Kitty was not slow in realizing
a sense of being, not only under her influence, but of
being in love with her, and immediately fell in love
with her, as young girls often fall in love with married
women older than themselves. Anna was not like a
society woman, or the mother of an eight-year-old son ;
but, by her vivacity of movement, by the freshness and
animation of her face, expressed in her smile and in her
eyes, she would have been taken rather for a young
girl of twenty, had it not been for a serious and some-
times almost melancholy look, which struck and at-
tracted Kitty.
Kitty felt that she was perfectly natural and sincere,
but that there was something about her that suggested
a whole world of complicated and poetic interests far
beyond her comprehension.
After dinner, when Dolly had gone to her room,
Anna went eagerly to her brother, who was smoking
a cigar.
" Stiva," said she, giving him a joyous wink, making
the sign of the cross, and glancing toward the door,
"go, and God help you."
He understood her, and, throwing away his cigar,
disappeared behind the door.
As soon as he had gone, Anna sat down upon a divan,
surrounded by the children.
Either because they saw that their mamma loved this
aunt, or because they themselves felt a special attraction
toward her, the two eldest, and therefore the younger,
as often happens with children, had taken possession
of her even before dinner, and could not leave her
alone. And now they were having something like a
game, in which each tried to get next to her, to hold
her little hand, to kiss her, to play with her rings, or
even to cling to the flounces of her gown.
" There ! there ! let us sit as we were before," said
Anna, sitting down in her place.
And Grisha, proud and dehghted, thrust his head
under his aunt's arm, and nestled up close to her.
"And when is the ball } " she asked of Kitty.
94 ANNA KARENINA
" Next week ! it will be a lovely ball — one of those
balls where one always has a good time."
" Then there are places where one always has a good
time ? " asked Anna, in a tone of gentle irony.
" Strange, but it is so. We always enjoy ourselves
at the Bobrishchefs' and at the Nikitins', but at the Mezh-
kofs' it is always dull. Have n't you ever noticed that .-* "
" No, dusha nioya, no ball could be amusing to me,"
said Anna; and again Kitty saw in her eyes that un-
known world, which had not yet been revealed to her.
" For me they are all more or less tiresome."
" How could j^« find a ball tiresome } "
" And why should / no^ find a ball tiresome ? "
Kitty perceived that Anna foresaw what her answer
would be : —
" Because you are always the loveliest of all ! "
Anna blushed easily ; she blushed now, and said : —
" In the first place, that is not true ; and in the second,
if it were, it would not make any difference."
"Won't you go to this ball .? " asked Kitty.
" I think that I would rather not go. Here ! take it,"
said she to Tanya, who was drawing off a loose ring
from her delicate white finger.
" I should be delighted if you would go ; I should so
like to see you at a ball."
" Well, if I have to go, I shall console myself with
the thought that I am making you happy Grisha,
don't pull my hair down ! it is disorderly enough now,"
said she, putting back the rebellious lock with which the
lad was playing.
" I can imagine you at a ball dressed in violet."
" Why in violet ? " asked Anna, smihng. " Now, chil-
dren, run away, run away. Don't you hear ? Miss
Hull IS calling you to tea," said she, freeing herself
from the children, and sending them out to. the dining-
room.
" I know why you want me to go to the ball. You
expect something wonderful to happen at this ball, and
you are anxious for us all to be there so as to share in
your happiness."
ANNA KARENINA 95
" How did you know ? You are right ! "
" Oh, what a lovely age is yours! " continued Anna.
" I remember well, and know this purple haze like that
which you see hanging over the mountains in Switzer-
land. This haze covers everything in that delicious time
when childhood ends, and from out this immense circle,
so joyous, so gay, grows a footpath ever narrower and
narrower, and leads gayly and painfully into that laby-
rinth, and yet it seems so bright and so beautiful
Who has not passed through it .'' "
Kitty listened and smiled. " How did she pass through
it.? How I should like to know the whole romance of
her life ! " thought Kitty, remembering the unpoetic
appearance of her husband, Aleksei Aleksandrovitch.
" I know a thing or two," continued Anna. " Stiva
told m.e, and I congratulate you ; he pleased me very
much. I met Vronsky at the station."
" Akh ! was he there.'' " asked Kitty, blushing. "What
did Stiva tell you } "
" Stiva told me the whole story ; and I should be de-
lighted ! I came from Petersburg with Vronsky's
mother," she continued ; " and his mother never ceased
to speak of him. He is her favorite. I know how
partial mothers are, but.... "
" What did his mother tell you >. "
"Akh ! many things ; and I know that he is her favor-
ite. But still it is evident he has a chivalrous nature.
— Well, for example, she told me how he wanted to give
up his whole fortune to his brother ; how he did some-
thing still more wonderful when he was a boy — saved
a woman from drowning. In a word, he is a hero ! "
said Anna, smiling, and remembering the two hundred
rubles which he had given at the station.
But she did not tell about the two hundred rubles.
Somehow it was not pleasant for her to remember that.
She felt that there was something in it that concerned
herself too closely, and ought not to have been.
" The countess urged me to come ta see her," con-
tinued Anna, " and I should be very happy to meet
her again, and I will go to-morrow. — Thank the Lord,
^ ANNA KARENINA
Stiva remains a long time with Dolly in the library," she
added, changing the subject, and, as Kitty perceived,
looking a little annoyed.
" I '11 be the first.... " " No, I," cried the children, who
had just finished their supper, and came running to their
Aunt Anna.
" All together," she said, laughing, and running to
meet them. She seized them and piled them in a heap,
struggling and screaming with delight.
CHAPTER XXI
At tea-time Dolly came out of her room. Stepan
Arkadyevitch was not with her ; he had left his wife's
chamber by the rear door.
" I am afraid you will be cold up-stairs," remarked
Dolly, addressing Anna. " I should like to have you
come down and be near me."
" Akh ! please don't worry about me," replied Anna,
trying to divine by Dolly's face if there had been a
reconciliation.
" Perhaps it would be too light for you here," said her
sister-in-law.
" I assure you, I sleep anywhere and everywhere as
sound as a woodchuck."
" What is it .'' " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, coming in
from his library, and addressing his wife.
By the tone of his voice, both Kitty and Anna knew
that the reconciliation had taken place.
" I wanted to install Anna down-stairs, but we should
have to put up some curtains. No one knows how to do
it, and so I must," said Dolly, in reply to her husband's
question.
" God knows if they have wholly made it up," thought
Anna, as she noticed Dolly's cold and even tone.
" Akh ! don't, Dolly, don't make difficulties ! Well ! if
you like, I will fix everything." ....
■*Yes," thought Anna, "they must have had a recon-
ciliation."
ANNA KARENINA 97
"I know how you do everything," said Dolly; "you
give Matve an order which it is impossible to carry out,
and then you go away, and he gets everything into a
tangle."
And her customary mocking smile wrinkled the cor-
ners of Dolly's lips as she said that.
"Complete, complete reconciliation, complete," thought
Anna. " Thank God ! " and, rejoicing that she had been
the cause of it, she went to Dolly and kissed her.
" Not by any means. Why have you such scorn for
Matve and me ? " said Stepan Arkadyevitch to his wife,
with an almost imperceptible smile.
Throughout the evening Dolly, as usual, was lightly
ironical toward her husband, and Stepan Arkadyevitch
was happy and gay, but within bounds, and as if he
wanted to make it evident that though he had obtained
pardon he had not forgotten his offense.
About half-past nine a particularly animated and
pleasant confidential conversation, which was going on
at the tea-table, was interrupted by an incident appar-
ently of the slightest importance, but this simple inci-
dent seemed to each member of the family to be very
strange.
They were talking about one of their Petersburg
acquaintances when Anna suddenly arose : —
" I have her picture in my album," she said ; " and at
the same time I will show you my little Serozha," she
added, with a smile of maternal pride.
It was usually about ten o'clock when she bade her
son good-night. Often she herself put him to bed
before she went out to parties, and now she felt a sen-
sation of sadness to be so far from him. No matter
what people were speaking about, her thoughts reverted
always to her little curly-haired Serozha, and the desire
seized her to go and look at his picture, and to talk
about him. Using this first pretext, she, with her light,
decided step, started to fetch her album. The stairs to
her room started from the landing-place in the large
staircase, which led from the heated hall. Just as she
was leaving the drawing-room the front door-bell rang.
VOL. I. — 7
98 ANNA KARENINA
"Who can that be?" said Dolly.
" It is too early to come after me, and too late for a
call," remarked Kitty.
" Doubtless somebody with papers for me," said
Stepan Arkadyevitch.
As Anna was passing the staircase she saw the ser-
vant going up to announce a caller, but the caller stood
in the light of the hall lamp, and was waiting. Anna
glancing down saw that it was Vronsky, and a strange
sensation of joy, mixed with terror, suddenly seized her
heart. He was standing with his coat on, and was tak-
ing something out of his pocket. At the moment Anna
reached the center of the staircase, he lifted his eyes,
and saw her, and his face assumed an expression of
humility and confusion. She bowed her head slightly in
salutation ; and as she went on her way she heard Stepan
Arkadyevitch's loud voice calling him to come in, and then
Vronsky's low, soft, and tranquil voice excusing himself.
When Anna reached the room with the album, he had
gone, and Stepan Arkadyevitch was telling how he came
to see about a dinner which they were going to give the
next day in honor of some celebrity who was in town.
" And nothing would induce him to come in. What
a queer fellow !" said Stepan Arkadyevitch.
Kitty blushed. She thought that she alone understood
what he had come for, and why he would not come in.
" He must have been at our house," she thought, "and,
not finding me, have supposed that I was here; but he
did not come in because it was late and Anna here."
They all exchanged glances, but nothing was said,
and they began to examine Anna's album.
There was nothing extraordinary or strange in a man
calling at half-past nine o'clock in the evening to inquire
of a friend about the details of a proposed dinner and
not coming in ; yet to everybody it seemed strange, and
it seemed more strange and unpleasant to Anna than to
any one else.
ANNA KARENINA 99
CHAPTER XXII
The ball was just beginning when Kitty and her
mother mounted the grand staircase, brilliantly Hghted
and adorned with flowers and with powdered lackeys in
red kaftans. In the ball-rooms there was an incessant
bustle of movement, which sounded like the humming of
a beehive, and, as they stopped to give the last touches
to their hair and gowns, before a mirror hung on the
tree-decorated landing, they heard the scraping of violins
as the orchestra was tuning up for the first waltz.
A little old man, a civilian, who was smoothing his
white locks at another mirror, and who exhaled a pene-
trating odor of perfumes, brushed against them on the
stairway and stood aside, evidently impressed by Kitty's
youth and beauty. A beardless young man, such as the
old Prince Shcherbatsky would have reckoned among the
" mashers," wearing a very low-cut waistcoat and a white
necktie which he adjusted as he walked, bowed to them,
and after he had passed them turned back to ask Kitty
for a quadrille. The first quadrille was already promised
to Vronsky, and so she was obliged to content the young
man with the second. An officer buttoning his gloves
was standing near the door of the ball-room ; he cast a
glance of admiration at the blooming Kitty, and caressed
his mustache.
Although Kitty had taken great pains and spent much
labor on her toilet, her gown, and all the preparations
for this ball, yet now she entered the ball-room, in
her complicated robe of tulle with its rose-colored over-
dress, as easily and naturally as if all these rosettes and
laces, all the requirements of her toilet, had not caused
her or her people a moment's attention, as if she had
been born in this lace-trimmed ball-dress, and with a
rose and two ribbons placed on the top of her grace-
ful head. When the old princess, her mother, just be-
fore they entered the ball-room, was about to readjust
her broad sash-ribbon, Kitty gently declined. She felt
that everything about her must surely be right and
lOO ANNA KARENINA
graceful, and that to readjust anything about her was
unnecessary.
Kitty was looking her prettiest. Her gown was not
too tight anywhere ; her lace fichu did not slip down,
her rosettes did not crush, and did not pull off; her
rose-colored slippers with their high heels did not pinch
her, but were agreeable to her feet. The thick braids
of her fair hair kept perfectly in place on her graceful
little head. All the three buttons on her long gloves,
which enveloped, without changing, the pretty shape of
her hands, fastened easily, and did not tear. The black
velvet ribbon, attached to a medallion, was thrown
daintily about her neck. This ribbon was charming;
and at home, as she saw it in her mirror, adorning her
neck, Kitty felt that this ribbon spoke. Everything
else might be dubious, but this ribbon was charming.
Kitty smiled, even there at the ball, as she saw it in the
mirror. In her bare shoulders and arms Kitty felt a
sensation of marble coolness, a sensation which she
especially enjoyed. Her eyes shone and her rosy lips
could not refrain from smiling with the consciousness
of how fascinating she was.
She had scarcely entered the ball-room and joined a
group of tulle-, ribbon-, lace-, and flower-decorated ladies,
who were waiting for partners, — Kitty never remained
long in that category, — when she was invited to waltz
with the best dancer, the principal cavalier in the whole
hierarchy of the ball-room, the celebrated leader of the
mazurka, the master of ceremonies, the handsome, ele-
gant Yegorushka Korsunsky, a married man and a
civilian. He had just left the Countess Bonina, with
whom he had been taking the first turns of the waltz,
and, while looking round over his domain, in other
words, over the few couples who were venturing out on
the floor, he perceived Kitty, made his way to her in
that easy manner peculiar to leaders of the mazurka,
bowed, and without even asking her permission put his
arm around the young girl's slender waist. She looked
for some one to whom to confide her fan ; and the mis-
tress of the mansion, smiling on her, took charge of it.
ANNA KARENINA loi
" How good of you to come early," said Korsunsky,
as he put his arm around her waist. " I don't like the
fashion of being late."
Kitty placed her left hand on her partner's shoulder,
and her little feet, shod in rose-colored bashmaks, glided
swiftly, lightly, and rhythmically over the polished floor.
" It is restful to dance with you," said he, as he fell
into the slow measures of the waltz : " charming ! such
lightness ! such precision ! "
That was what he said to almost all his dancing
acquaintances.
She smiled at his flattery, and continued to study the
ball-room across her partner's shoulder. She was not
such a novice in society as to find all faces blending in
one magic sensation ; she had not been so assiduous in
her attendance at balls as to know every one present,
and be tired of seeing them. But she was in that happy
condition between these two extremes, she was exhilarated
and at the same time she was sufficiently self-possessed
to be able to look around and observe.
She noticed a group that had gathered in the left-hand
corner of the ball-room, composed of the very flower of
society. Korsunsky's wife, Lidi, a beauty in an ex-
tremely low-cut corsage, was there ; the mistress of the
mansion was there ; there shone Krivin's bald head,
always to be seen where the flower of society was
gathered. Young men were looking at this group, and
not venturing to join it. Then her eyes fell on Stiva,
who was also there, and then she saw Anna's elegant
figure dressed in black velvet. And //<? was there.
Kitty had not seen him since the evening when she
refused Levin. Kitty's keen eyes instantly recognized
him across the room, and saw that he was looking at
her.
"Shall we have one more turn ? You are not fatigued ? "
asked Korsunsky, slightly out of breath,
" No, thank you."
" Where shall I leave you ? "
" I think Madame Karenina is here ; .... take me to
her."
lOft ANNA KARENINA
"Anywhere that you please."
And Korsunsky, still waltzing with Kitty but with a
slower step, made his way toward the group on the left,
saying as he went, " Pardon, mesdames ; pardon, pardon,
mesdames ;'' and steering skilfully through the sea of
laces, tulle, and ribbons, without catching a feather, placed
her in a chair after a final turn, which gave a glimpse of
her slender ankles in dainty blue stockings, while her
train spread out like a fan and covered Krivin's knees.
Korsunsky bowed, then straightened himself up, and
offered Kitty his arm to conduct herto Anna Arkadyevna.
Kitty, blushing a, little, fi^eil^ Krivin from the folds of
her train, and, just a trifle- dizzy, looked around in search
of Anna7 Anna was n©t dressed in violet, as Kitty had
hoped, but in a low-cut black velvet gown, which showed
her plump shoulders and bosom smooth as ivory, her
beautiful round arms, and her delicate slender wrists.
Her robe was adorned with Venetian guipure ; on her
head, gracefully set on her^rk locks, was a little gar-
land of heartsease ^ ; and a similar IJouquet was fastened
in her black ribbon-belt in the midst of white lace. Her
hair, which was all her own, was dressed very simply ;
there was nothing remarkable about it except the abun-
dance of little natural curls, which strayed in fascinating
disorder about her neck and temples. She wore a string
of pearls about her firm round throat.
Kitty had seen Anna every day, and had fallen in
love with her ; but now that she saw her dressed in
black, instead of the violet which she had expected, she
was conscious that she had never before appreciated
her full beauty. She saw her in a new and unexpected
light. Now she realized that violet would not have been
becoming to her, and that her charm consisted entirely
in her independence of toilet ; that her toilet was only
an accessory, and her black gown with the magnificent
laces was only an accessory, was only a frame for her,
and nothing else was to be thought of but herself in all
her simplicity, naturalness, elegance, and at the same
time her gayety and animation.
J Viola tricolor, called in Russian anyutini gldzki, or Anna's eyes.
ANNA KARENINA 103
When Kitty joined her she was standing in her usual
erect attitude, talking with the master of the house, her
head slightly bent toward him.
" No, I would not cast the first stone, though I don't
understand about it," she was saying to him, slightly
shrugging her shoulders ; and then, perceiving Kitty,
she turned to her with an affectionate and reassuring
smile. With a woman's quick intuition she saw all the
beauty of the young girl's toilet, and gave her an appre-
ciative nod, which Kitty understood.
"You even dance into the ball-room," she said.
" She is the most faithful of my aids," said Korsunsky,
addressing Anna Arkadyevna, whom he had not as yet
seen. " The princess helps to make any ball-room gay
and delightful. Anna Arkadyevna, will you take a
turn } " he asked, with a bow.
" Ah ! you are acquainted ? " said the host.
" Who is it we don't know ? My wife and I are like
white wolves, — everybody knows us," replied Korsun-
sky. " A little waltz, Anna Arkadyevna .'' "
"I don't dance when I can help it," she replied.
" But you can't help it to-night," said Korsunsky. At
this moment Vronsky joined them.
" Well ! if I can't help dancing, let us dance," said
she, placing her hand on Korsunsky's shoulder, and not
replying to Vronsky's salutation.
" Why is she vexed with him .■' " thought Kitty, notic-
ing that Anna purposely paid no attention to Vronsky's
bow. Vronsky joined Kitty, reminded her that she was
engaged to him for the first quadrille, and expressed
regret that he had not seen her for so long. Kitty,
while she was looking with admiration at Anna as she
waltzed, listened to Vronsky. She expected that he
woald invite her; but he did nothing of the sort, and
she looked at him with astonishment. A flush came
into his face, and he hastily suggested that they should
waltz ; but he had scarcely put his arm around her
slender waist and taken the first step, when suddenly
the music stopped. Kitty looked into his face, which
was close to her own, and for many a long day, even
I04 ANNA KARENINA
after years had passed, the loving look which she gave
him and which he did not return tore her heart with
cruel shame.
** Pardon ! pardon ! A waltz! a waltz!" cried Kor-
sunsky at the other end of the ball-room, and, seizing
the first young lady at hand, he began once more to
dance.
CHAPTER XXIII
Vronsky took a few turns with Kitty, then she joined
her mother ; but she had time for only a few words with
the Countess Nordstone, ere Vronsky came back to get
her for the first quadrille. During the quadrille nothing
of importance was said : their conversation was first on
Korsunsky and his wife, whom Vronsky described very
amusingly as amiable children of forty years, then on
some private theatricals ; and only once did his words
give her a keen pang, — when he asked if Levin were
there, and added that he liked him very much.
But Kitty counted little on the quadrille : she waited
for the mazurka with a violent beating of the heart.
She had a feeling that during the mazurka all would
surely be settled. The fact that Vronsky did not ask
her during the quadrille did not disturb her. She felt
sure that she should be selected as his partner for the
mazurka as in all preceding balls, and she refused five
invitations, saying that she was engaged.
This whole ball, even to the last quadrille, seemed to
Kitty like a magical dream, full of flowers, of joyous
sounds, of movement ; she did not cease to dance until
her strength began to fail, and then she begged to rest
a moment. But in dancing the last quadrille with one
of those tiresome men whom she found it impossible to
refuse, she found herself in the same set with Vronsky
and Anna. Kitty had not fallen in with Anna since the
beginning of the ball, and now again she suddenly saw
her in another new and unexpected light. She seemed
laboring under an excitement such as Kitty herself had
experienced — that of success. She saw that Anna
ANNA KARENINA 105
was excited and intoxicated with the wine of admiration.
Kitty knew the sensation, knew the symptoms and
recognized them in Anna^ — she saw the feverish brill-
iancy of her, and the smile of happiness and excitement
involuntarily parting her lips, and the harmony, precis-
ion, and grace of her movements.
" Who has caused it ? " she asked herself, " All, or
one > "
She would not help her tormented partner in the
conversation, the thread of which he had dropped and
could not pick up again ; and though she submitted
with apparent good grace to the loud orders of Kor-
sunsky, shouting "Ladies' chain" and "All hands
around," she watched her closely, and her heart op-
pressed her more and more.
" No, it is not the approval of the crowd that has so
intoxicated her, but the admiration of the one. And
that one.? — Can it be /lef"
Every time Vronsky spoke to Anna, her eyes spar-
kled with pleasure, and a smile of happiness parted her
rosy lips. She seemed to make an effort not to exhibit
any signs of this joy, but nevertheless happiness was
painted on her face.
" Can it be /le f " thought Kitty.
She looked at him, and was horror-struck. The senti-
ments that were reflected on Anna's face as in a mirror
were also visible on his. Where were his coolness, his
calm dignity, the repose which always marked his face .-'
Now, as he addressed his partner, his head bent as
if he were ready to worship her, and his look ex-
pressed at once humility and passion, as if it said, ' J
tvould not offejid you. I wonld save myself, and how
can /.?'
Such was the expression of his face, and she had
never before seen it in him.
They talked about their mutual acquaintances, their
conversation was made up of trifles, and yet Kitty felt
that every word they spoke decided her fate. Strange
as it might seem, although they really remarked how
ridiculous Ivan Ivanuitch was in his efforts to speak
,iq6 anna KARENINA
French, and how Miss Fletskaya might have found a
better match, nevertheless these words had for them a
peculiar meaning, and they understood it just as well as
Kitty did.
In Kitty's mind, the whole ball, the whole evening,
everything, seemed enveloped in mist. Only the stern
school of her education, serving her well, sustained her,
and enabled her to do what was required of her, that is
to say, to dance, to answer questions, to talk, even to
smile.
But even before the mazurka began, while they were
arranging the chairs and a few couples were already
starting to go from the smaller rooms into the great
ball-room, a sudden attack of despair and terror seized
her. She had refused five invitations, and. now she had
no partner ; and now there was no hope at all that she
would be invited again, for the very reason that her
social success would make it unlikely to occur to any
one that she would be without a partner. She would
have to tell her mother that she was not feeling well,
and go home, but even this seemed impossible. She
felt overwhelmed.
She went into the farthest end of a small parlor, and
threw herself into an arm-chair. The airy skirts of her
robe enveloped her delicate figure as in a cloud. One
bare arm, as yet a little thin, but pretty, fell without
energy, and lay in the folds of her rose-colored skirt ;
with the other she held her fan, and with quick, sharp
motions tried to cool her heated face. But while she
looked like a lovely butterfly caught amid grasses, and
ready to spread its rainbow-tinted wings, a horrible
despair oppressed her heart.
" But perhaps I am mistaken : perhaps it is not so."
And again she recalled what she had seen.
"Kitty, what does this mean.?" said the Countess
Nordstone, coming to her with noiseless steps.
Kitty's lower lip quivered ; she hastily arose.
" Kitty, are n't you dancing the mazurka ? "
" No .... no," she replied, with trembling voice, almost
in tears.
ANNA KARENINA 107
"I heard him invite her for the mazurka," said the
countess, knowing that Kitty would know whom she
meant. "She said, ' What! ai^e n' t you going to dance
ivith the Princess Shchei'batskaya?"
" Akh ! it 's all one to me," said Kitty.
No one besides herself realized her position. No one
knew that she had refused a man whom perhaps she
loved, — refused him because she preferred some one
else.
The Countess Nordstone went in search of Korsun-
sky, who was her partner for the mazurka, and sent him
to invite Kitty.
Kitty danced in the first figure, and fortunately was
not required to talk, because Korsunsky was obliged to
be ubiquitous, making his arrangements in his little king-
dom. Vronsky and Anna were sitting nearly opposite
to her : she saw them sometimes near, sometimes at a
distance, as their turn brought them into the figures ;
and as she watched them, she felt more and more cer-
tain that her unhappiness was complete. She saw that
they felt themselves alone even in the midst of the
crowded ball-room ; and on Vronsky's face, usually so
impassive and calm, she remarked that mingled expies-
sion of humility and fear, which strikes one in an intel-
ligent dog, conscious of having done wrong.
If Anna smiled, his smile replied ; if she became
thoughtful, he looked serious. An almost supernatural
power seemed to attract Kitty's gaze to Anna's face.
She was charming in her simple black velvet ; charming
were her round arms, clasped by bracelets ; charming
her firm neck, encircled with pearls ; charming her dark,
curly locks breaking from restraint ; charming the slow
and graceful movements of her small feet and hands ;
charming her lovely face, full of animation ; but in all
this charm there was something terrible and cruel.
Kitty admired her more than ever, and ever more and
more her pain increased. She felt crushed, and her face
told the story. When Vronsky passed her, in some fig-
ure of the mazurka, he hardly knew her, so much had
she changed.
xo8 ANNA KARENINA
"Lovely ball," he said, so as to say something.
"Yes," was her reply.
Toward the middle of the mazurka, in going through
a complicated figure recently •invented by Korsunsky,
Anna went to the center of the circle, and called out
two gentlemen and two ladies ; Kitty was one. As she
approached Anna, she looked at her in dismay, Anna,
half shutting her eyes, looked at her with a smile, and
pressed her hand ; then noticing that Kitty's face, reply-
ing to her smile, wore an expression of despair and
amazement, she turned from her and began to talk to
the other lady in animated tones.
. "Yes, there is some terrible, almost infernal attrac-
tion about her," said Kitty to herself.
Anna did not wish to remain to supper, but the host
insisted.
"Do stay, Anna Arkadyevna," said Korsunsky, as
she stood with her bare arm resting on the sleeve of his
coat. "Such a cotillion I have in mind ! Un bijou !''
And the master of the house, looking on with a smile,
encouraged his efforts to detain her,
" No, I cannot stay," said Anna, also smiling ; but in
spite of her smile the two men understood by the deter-
mination in her voice that she would not stay.
" No, for I have danced here in Moscow at this single
ball more than all winter in Petersburg," said she,
looking at Vronsky, who was standing near her; "one
must rest before a journey."
" And so you are really going back to-morrow .!• " he
asked.
" Yes ; I think so," replied Anna, as if surprised at
the boldness of his question. But as she said this to
him, the brilliancy of her eyes and of her smile set his
heart on fire.
Anna Arkadyevna did not stay for supper, but took
her departure.
ANNA KARENINA 109
CHAPTER XXIV
"Yes, there must be something repellent, even re-
pulsive, about me," thought Levin, as he left the Shcher-
batskys', and went on foot in search of his brother. " I
am not popular with men. They say it is pride. No,
I am not proud ; if I had been proud, I should not have
put myself in my present situation."
And he imagined himself Vronsky, happy, popular,
calm, witty, who had apparently never put himself in
such a terrible position as he was in on that evening.
" Yes, she naturally chose him, and I have no right
to complain about any one or any thing. I myself am
to blame. What right had I to think that she would
ever unite her life with mine ? Who am I ? and what
am I? A man useful to no one — a good-for-nothing."
Then the memory of his brother Nikolai' came back
to him.
" Was he not right in saying that everything in the
world was miserable and wretched ? Have we been,
and are we, just in our judgment of brother Nikolai?
Of course, from the point of view of Prokofi, who saw
him drunk and in ragged clothes, he is a miserable crea-
ture ; but I judge him differently. I know his heart,
and I know that we are alike. And I, instead of going
to find him, have been out dining, and to this reception ! "
Levin went to a street-lamp and read his brother's
address, which was written on a slip of paper, and called
an izvoshchik. All the long way he vividly recalled one
by one the well-known incidents of his brother Nikolai's
life. He remembered how at the university, and for a
year after his graduation, he had lived like a monk not-
withstanding the ridicule of his comrades, strictly de-
voted to all forms of religion, services, fasts, turning
his back on all pleasures, and especially women ; and
then how he had suddenly turned around, and fallen
into the company of people of the lowest lives, and
entered upon a course of dissipation and debauchery.
He remembered his conduct toward a lad whom he
no ANNA KARENINA
had taken from the country to bring up, and whom he
whipped so severely in a fit of anger that he narrowly
escaped being transported for mayhem. He remem-
bered his conduct toward a swindler to whom he owed
a gambling debt and in payment of it had given him his
note, and whom he had caused to be arrested on the
charge of cheating him ; this was, in fact, money that
Sergef Ivanuitch had just paid. Then he remembered
the night spent by Nikolai at the station-house on
account of a spree. He remembered the scandalous
lawsuit against his brother Sergef Ivanuitch, because
Sergei had refused to pay his share of their mother's
estate ; and finally he recalled his last adventure, when,
after he had gone to take a position at the Western fron-
tier, he was dismissed for assaulting a superior
All this was detestable, but it did not seem nearly so
odious to Levin as it would have been to those who did
not know Nikolaf, did not know his history, did not
know his heart.
Levin remembered how at the time when Nikolai' was
occupied with his devotions, his fastings, his priests, his
ecclesiastical observances, when he was seeking to curb
his passionate nature by religion, no one had aided him,
but, on the contrary, every one, even himself, had made
sport of him ; they had mocked him, nicknamed him
Noah, the monk ! Then, when he had fallen, no one
had helped him, but all had turned from him with hor-
ror and disgust. Levin felt that his brother Nikolaif at
the bottom of his heart, in spite of all the deformity of
his life, was not so very much worse than those who
despised him. He was not to blame for having been
born with his unrestrainable character and his peculi-
arities of intellect. He had always had good impulses.
" I will tell him everything, and I will make him tell
me everything, and show him that I love him and there-
fore understand him," said Levin to himself, and about
eleven o'clock in the evening he bade the driver take
him to the hotel indicated on the address.
"Upstairs, No. 12 and 13, "-said the Swiss, in reply to
Levin's question.
ANNA KARENINA iii
•' Is he at home ? "
"Probably."
The door of No. 12 was half open, and from the room
came the dense fumes of cheap, poor tobacco, and a
voice unknown to Levin was heard speaking ; but Levin
instantly knew his brother was there ; he recognized
his cough.
When he reached the door, the unknown voice was
saying : —
"All depends on whether the affair is conducted in a
proper and rational manner."
Konstantin Levin glanced through the doorway, and
saw that the speaker was a young man, in a peasant's
sleeveless coat, and with an enormous mop of hair on
his head. On the divan was sitting a young woman,
with pock-marked face, and dressed in a woolen gown
without collar or cuffs. His brother was not to be seen,
A pain shot through Konstantin's heart to think of the
strange people with whom his brother associated. No
one heard him ; and, while he was removing his galoshes,
he listened to what the man in the sleeveless coat was
saying. He was speaking of some enterprise.
" Well ! the Devil take the privileged classes ! " said
his brother's voice, after a fit of coughing. " Masha,
see if you can't get us something to eat, and bring some
wine if there 's any left ; if not, go for some."
The woman arose, and as she came out from behind
the screen she saw Konstantin.
" A gentleman here, Nikolai" Dmitritch," she cried.
"What is wanted?" said the voice of Nikolaf Levin,
angrily.
"It's I," replied Konstantin, appearing at the door.
"Who's /.^" repeated Nikolai's voice, still more
angrily.
Then he was heard quickly rising and stumbling
against something, and Konstantin saw before him at
the door his brother's well-known figure, still remark-
able by reason of his shyness and ill health — infirm,
tall, thin, and bent, with great startled eyes.
He was still thinner than when Konstantin had last
jia ANNA KARENINA
seen him, three years before. He wore a short over-
coat. His hands and his bony frame seemed to him
more colossal than ever. His hair had grown thinner,
but the same stiff mustaches hid his lips, the same eyes
glared at his visitor uncannily and naively.
" Ah, Kostia ! " he suddenly cried, recognizing his
brother, and his eyes shone with joy. But the same
instant he fixed his eyes on the younger man, and made
a quick, convulsive motion of his head and neck, as if
his cravat choked him, a gesture well known to Kon-
stantin ; and an entirely different expression, wild, and
bitter, and expressive of martyrdom, came into his
sunken face.
" I wrote both to you and to Sergei" Ivanuitch that I
do not know you, nor wish to know you. What do you
want ; what does either of you want .-' "
He was not at all as Konstantin had imagined him.
The hardest and vilest elements of his character, which
had made any relations with him difficult, had faded
from Konstantin Levin's memory whenever he thought
about him ; and now, when he saw his face and the
characteristic convulsive motions of his head, he remem-
bered it all.
" But I wanted nothing of you except to see you," he
replied timidly. ** I only came to see you."
His brother's diffidence apparently disarmed Nikolai.
His lips relaxed.
" Ah ! did you .-' " said he. " Well ! come in, sit down.
Do you want some supper ? Masha, bring enough for
three. No, hold on 1 Do you know who this is .'' " he
asked his brother, pointing to the young man in the
peasant's coat. "This gentleman is Mr. Kritsky, a
friend of mine from Kief, a very remarkable man. It
seems the police are after him, because he is not a
coward."
And he looked, as his habit was, at all who were in
the room. Then, seeing that the woman, who stood at
the door, was about to leave, he shouted : —
"Wait, I tell you."
Then, in his extravagant, incoherent manner of
ANNA KARENINA 113
speech, which Konstantin knew so well, he began to
tell his brother the whole story of Kritsky's life ; how
he had been driven from the university, because he had
tried to found an aid society and Sunday-schools among
the students ; how afterwards he had been appointed
teacher in one of the public schools, only to be dis-
missed ; and how finally he had been tried for something
or other.
"Were you at the University of Kief?" asked Kon-
stantin of Kritsky, in order to break the awkward silence
that followed.
" Yes, I was at Kief," replied Kritsky, curtly, with a
frown.
" And this woman," cried Nikolai' Levin, pointing to
the girl, "is the companion of my life, Marya Niko-
layevna. I took her from a house," — he said, stretch-
ing out his neck, — " but I love her, and I esteem her ;
and all who want to know me," he added, raising his
voice and scowling, " must love her and esteem her.
She is just the same as my wife, just the same. So
now you know with whom you have to do. And if you
think that you lower yourself, there 's the door ! " ^ And
again his eyes looked at them all questioningly.
"I do not understand how I should lower myself."
" All right, Masha, bring us up enough for three, —
some vodka and wine No, wait ; .... no matter, though ;
....go!"
CHAPTER XXV
"As you see," continued NikolaT Levin, frowning, and
speaking with effort. It was evidently hard for him to
make up his mind what to do or say. "But do you
see .^" ....and he pointed to the corner of the room,
where lay some iron bars attached to straps. " Do you
see that } That is the beginning of a new work which
^ He quotes the riming phrase : Tai vot Bog a vot forog (or, vot tebyt
Bog, a vot tebye porog) which expanded may mean, "Stay if you like and
God be with you, but yonder is the threshold ! "
VOL. I. — 8
114 ANNA KARENINA
we are undertaking. This work belongs to a productive
labor association." ....
Konstantin scarcely listened : he was looking at his
brother's sick, consumptive face, and he grew more and
more sorry for him, and he could not compel himself to
listen to what his brother was saying about the labor
association. He saw that the labor association was only
an anchor of safety to keep him from absolute self-
abasement. Nikolai' went on to say : —
" You know that capital is crushing the laborer : with
us the laboring classes, the muzhiks, bear the whole
weight of toil ; and no matter how they exert them-
selves, they can never get above their cattle-like condi-
tion. All the profits created by their productive labor,
by which they could better their lot and procure for them-
selves leisure, and therefore instruction, all their super-
fluous profits are swallowed up by the capitalists. And
society is so constituted that, the harder they work, the
more the proprietors and the merchants fatten at their
expense, while they remain beasts of burden still. And
this order of things must be changed," said he, in con-
clusion, and looked questioningly at his brother.
" Yes, of course," replied Konstantin, looking at the
pink spots which burned in his brother's hollow cheeks.
"And now we are organizing an artel of locksmiths
where all will be in common, — work, profits, and even
the tools."
" Where will this artel be situated } " asked Kon-
stantin.
"In the village of Vozdremo, government of Kazan."
" Yes ; but why in a village ? In the villages, it seems
to me, there is plenty of work : why associated lock-
smiths in a village .-• "
"Because the muzhiks are serfs, just as much as they
ever were, and you and Sergef Ivanuitch don't like it
because we want to free them from this slavery," replied
Nikolaif, vexed by his brother's question.
While he spoke, Konstantin was looking about the
melancholy, dirty room ; he sighed, and his sigh seemed
to make Nikolai' still more angry.
ANNA KARENINA 115
** I know the aristocratic prejudices of such men as
you and Sergef Ivanuitch. I know that he is spending
all the strength of his mind in defense of the evils that
crush us."
" No ! but why do you speak of Sergef Ivanuitch ? "
asked Levin, smiling.
" Sergei Ivanuitch } This is why ! " cried NikolaY, at
the mention of Sergef Ivanuitch — " this is why ! ....
yet what is the good .-* tell me this — what did you come
here for ? You despise all this ; very good ! Go away,
for God's sake," he cried, rising from his chair, — " go
away ! go away ! "
" I don't despise anything," said Konstantin, gently ;
" I only refrain from discussing."
At this moment Marya Nikolayevna came in. Niko-
laY looked at her angrily, but she quickly stepped up to
him and whispered a few words in his ear.
"I am not well, I easily become irritable," he ex-
plained, growing calmer, and breathing with difificulty,
"and you just spoke to me about Sergei Ivanuitch and
his article. It is so rubbishy, so idle, so full of error.
How can a man, who knows nothing about justice,
write about it } Have you read his article } " said he,
turning to Kritsky, and then, going to the table, he
brushed off the half-rolled cigarettes so as to clear away
a little space.
" I have not read it," replied Kritsky, gloomily, evi-
dently not wishing to take part in the conversation.
" Why .'' " cried Nikolai', irritably, still addressing
Kritsky.
" Because I don't consider it necessary to waste my
time on it."
" That is, excuse me — how do you know that it would
be a waste of time ? For many people this article is
inaccessible, because it is above them. But I find i'.
different ; I sec the thoughts through and through, and
know wherein it is weak."
No one replied. Kritsky slowly arose, and took his hat
"Won't you take some lunch .^ Well, good-by !
Come to-morrow with the locksmith."
ii6 ANNA KARENINA
Kritsky had hardly left the room, when Nikolai smiled
and winked.
" He is to be pitied ; but I see .... "
Just at that instant Kritsky, calling at the door, inter-
rupted him.
" What do you want ? " he asked, joining him in the
corridor.
Left alone with Marya Nikolayevna, Levin said to
her : —
"Have you been long with my brother.-'"
"This is the second year. His health has become
very feeble ; he drinks a great deal," she said.
"What do you mean .-' "
" He drinks vodka, and it is bad for him."
" Does he drink too much ? "
"Yes," said she, looking timidly toward the door
where Nikolai Levin was just entering.
" What were you talking about y he demanded, with
a scowl, and looking from one to the other with angry
eyes. "Tell me."
" Oh ! nothing," replied Konstantin, in confusion.
" You don't want to answer .-* all right ! don't. But
you have no business to be talking with her ; she is a
girl, you a gentleman," he shouted, craning out his neck.
"I see that you have understood everything, and judged
everything, and that you look with grief on the errors
of my ways."
He went on speaking, raising his voice.
" Nikolaf Dmitritch ! Nikolai' Dmitritch ! " whispered
Marya Nikolayevna, coming close to him.
"Well! very good, very good Supper, then? ah!
here it is," he said, seeing a servant entering with a
platter.
" Here ! put it here ! " he said crossly ; then, taking
the vodka, he poured out a glass, and drank it eagerly.
" Will you have a drink ? " he asked his brother, im-
mediately growing lively.
" Well ! no more about Sergei Ivanuitch 1 I am very
glad to see you. No matter what people say, we are no
longer strangers. Come now I drink ! Tell me what
ANNA KARENINA 117
you are doing," he said, greedily munching a piece of
bread, and pouring out a second glass. " How are you
living ? "
" I live alone in the country, as I always have, and
busy myself with farming," replied Konstantin, looking
with terror at the eagerness with which his brother ate
and drank, and trying to hide his impressions.
" Why don't you get married .-' "
" I have not come to that yet," replied Konstantin,
turning red.
"Why so.'* For me — it's all over! I have wasted
my life ! This I have said, and always shall say, that,
if they had given me my share of the estate when I
needed it, my whole life v/ould have been different."
Konstantin hastened to change the conversation.
" Did you know that your Vanyuskka ^ is with me at
Pokrovskoye as book-keeper } " he said.
Nikola'f craned out his neck and wondered.
" Yes, tell me what is doing at Pokrovskoye. Is the
house just the same .'' and the birch trees and our study-
room .-• Is Filipp, the gardener, still alive .'' How I re-
member the summer-house and the divan! .... Just look
here I don't let anything in the house be changed, but
hurry up and get married and begin to live as you used
to. Then I will come to visit you if your wife will be
kind."
"Then come back with me now," said Konstantin.
" How well we should get on together ! "
" I would come if I knew I should not meet Sergei
Ivanuitch."
" You would not meet him ; I live absolutely indepen-
dent of him."
" Yes ; but, whatever you say, you must choose be-
tween him and me," said Nikolai", looking timorously in
his brother's eyes.
This timidity touched Konstantin.
" If you want to hear my whole confession as to this
matter, I will tell you that I take sides neither with you
nor with him in your quarrel. You are both in the
1 Vanyushka is the diminutive of Ivan, as Jack is of John,
ii8 ANNA KARENINA
wrong ; but in your case the wrong is external, while in
his the wrong is inward."
" Ha, ha ! Do you understand it ? do you understand
it ? " cried Nikolai', with an expression of joy.
"But if you would like to know, personally I value
your friendship higher because...."
"Why? why.?"
Konstantin could not say that it was because Nikolai
was wretched, and needed his friendship; but Nikolaf
understood that that was the very thing he meant, and,
frowning darkly, he betook himself to the vodka.
" Enough, Nikolai" Dmitritch ! " cried Marya Nikola-
yevna, laying her great pudgy hand pn the decanter.
" Let me alone ! don't bother me, or I '11 strike you,"
he cried.
Marya Nikolayevna smiled with her gentle and good-
natured smile, which pacified Nikolai", and she took the
vodka.
"There ! Do you think that she does not understand
things.''" said Nikola"i". "She understands this thing
better than all of you. Is n't there something about her
good and gentle .'' "
" Have n't you ever been in Moscow before ? " said
Konstantin, in order to say something to her.
" There now, don't say via [you] to her. It frightens
her. No one said vui to her except the justice of the
peace, when they had her up because she wanted to
escape from the house of ill-fame where she was. My
God ! how senseless everything is in this world ! " he
suddenly exclaimed. "These new institutions, these
justices of the peace, the zemstro, what abominations!"
And he began to relate his experiences with the new
institutions.
Konstantin listened to him ; and the criticisms on the
absurdity of the new institutions, which he had himself
often expressed, now that he heard them from his
brother's lips, seemed disagreeable to him.
"We shall^understand it all in the next world," he
said jestingly.
" In the next world .-* Och ! I don't like your next
ANNA KARENINA 119
world ; I don't like it," he repeated, fixing his timid,
haggard eyes on his brother's face. " And yet it would
seem good to go from these abominations, these entan-
glements, from this unnatural state of things, from my-
self ; but I am afraid of death, horribly afraid of death ! "
He shuddered. " There ! drink s jmething ! Would you
like some champagne ? or would you rather go out some-
where ? Let 's go and see the gipsies. You know I am
very fond of gipsies and Russian songs."
His speech had begun to grow thick, and he hurried
from one subject to another. Konstantin, with Masha's
aid, persuaded him to stay at home ; and they put him
on his bed completely drunk.
Masha promised to write Konstantin in case of need,
and to persuade Nikolai Levin to come and live with his
brother.
CHAPTER XXVI
The next forenoon Levin left Moscow, and toward
evening was at home. On the journey he talked with
those near him in the train about politics, about the new
railroads ; and, just as in Moscow, he was overcome by
the chaos of conflicting opinions, self-dissatisfaction, and
a sense of shame. But when he got out at his station,
and perceived his one-eyed coachman, Ignat, with his
kaftan collar turned up; when he saw, in the dim light
that fell through the station windows, his covered sledge
and his horses with their tied-up tails, and their harness
with its rings and fringes ; when Ignat, as he was tuck-
ing in the robes, told him all the news of the village,
about the coming of the contractor, and how Pava the
cow had calved, — then it seemed to him that the chaos
resolved itself a little, and his shame and dissatisfaction
passed away. This he felt at the very sight of Ignat
and his horses ; but, as soon as he had put on his sheep-
skin tulup, which he found in the sleigh, and took his
seat in the sleigh comfortably wrapped up, and drove
off thinking what arrangement he should have to make
1^0 ANNA KARENINA
in the village, and at the same time examining the off
horse, Donskaya, which used to be his saddle-horse, a
jaded but mettlesome steed, he began to view his expe-
riences in an absolutely different light.
He felt himself again, and no longer wished to be a
different person. He only wished to be better than he
had ever been before. In the first place, he resolved
from that day forth that he would never expect extraor-
dinary joys, such as marriage had promised to bring to
him, and therefore he would never again despise the
present ; and, in the second place, he would never allow
himself to be led away by low passion, the remem-
brances of which so tortured him while he was deciding
to make his proposal. And lastly, as he thought of his
brother Nikolaf, he resolved that he would never again
forget him, but that he would keep track of him and not
let him out of sight, so that he might be in readiness to
aid him whenever the evil moment arrived, and that
seemed likely to be very soon.
Then the conversation about communism, which he
had so lightly treated with his brother, came back to
him, and made him reflect. A reform of economic con-
ditions seemed to him nonsense, but he always felt the
unfair difference between his own superfluity and the
poverty of the people, and in order that he might feel
perfectly right, he now vowed that though hitherto he
had worked hard, and lived economically, he would in
the future work still harder, and permit himself even less
luxury than ever. And all this seemed to him so easy
to accomplish that, throughout the drive from the sta-
tion, he was the subject of the pleasantest illusions.
With a hearty feeling of hope for a new and better life,
he reached home just as the clock was striking ten.
From the windows of the room occupied by his old
nurse, Agafya Mikhaflovna, who fulfilled the functions
of housekeeper, the light fell on the snow-covered walk
before his house. She was not yet asleep. Kuzma,
wakened by her> hurried down, barefooted and sleepy,
to open the door. Laska, the setter, almost knocking
Kuzma down in her desire to get ahead of him, ran to
ANNA KARENINA 121
meet her master, and jumped upon him, trying to place
her fore paws on his breast.
" You are back very soon, batyushka," said Agafya
Mikhaflovna.
" I was bored, Agafya Mikharlovna ; 't is good to go
visiting, but it 's better at home," said he. And he
went into his library.
The library slowly grew light as the candle that was
brought burnt up. The familiar details little by little
came into sight — the great antlers, the shelves lined
with books, the mirror, the stove with a hole which ought
long ago to have been repaired, the ancestral divan,
the great table, and on the table an open book, a broken
ash-tray, a note-book filled with his writing.
As he saw all these things, for a moment the doubt
arose in his mind if it would be possible to bring about
this new life which he had dreamed of during his journey.
All these signs of his past seemed to say to him, ' No,
thou shalt not leave us ! thou shalt not become another;
but thou shalt still be as thou hast always been, — with
thy doubts, thy everlasting self-dissatisfaction, thy idle
efforts at reform, thy failures, and thy perpetual striv-
ing for a happiness which will never be thine.'
But while these external objects spoke to him thus,
a different voice whispered to his soul, bidding him cease
to be a slave to his past, and declaring that a man has
every possibility within him. And, listening to this
voice, he went to one side of the room, where he found
two forty-pound dumb-bells. And he began to practise
his gymnastic exercises with them, endeavoring to bring
himself into a condition of vigor. At the door there was
a noise of steps. He hastily put down the dumb-bells.
The intendant ^ came in and said that, thanks to
God, everything was all right, but he confessed that
the buckwheat in the new drying-room had got burnt.
This provoked Levin. This new drying-room he had
himself built, and partially invented. But the inten-
dant had been entirely opposed to it, and now he an-
nounced with ill-concealed triumph that the buckwheat
^ Prikashchik,
122 ANNA KARENINA
was burnt. Levin was sure that it was because he had
neglected the precautions a hundred times suggested.
He grew angry, and reprimanded the intendant.
But there was one fortunate and important event :
Pava, his best, his most beautiful cow, which he had
bought at the cattle-show, had calved.
** Kuzma, give me my tulup. And you," said he to
the intendant, "get a lantern. I will go and see her."
The stable for the cattle was immediately behind the
house. Crossing the courtyard, where the snow was
heaf^ed under the lilac bushes, he stepped up to the
stable. As he opened the frosty door, he was met by
the warm fumes of manure, and the cows, astonished at
the unwonted light of the lantern, stirred on their fresh
straw. The light fell on the broad black back of his
piebald Holland cow. Berkut, the bull, with a ring in
his nose, tried to get to his feet, but changed his mind,
and only snorted as they passed by.
The beautiful Pava, huge as a hippopotamus, was ly-
ing near her calf, snuffing at it, and protecting it against
those who would come too close.
Levin entered the stall, examined Pava, and lifted the
calf, spotted with red and white, on its long, awkward
legs. Pava began to low with anxiety, but was re-
assured when the calf was restored to her, and began
to lick it with her rough tongue. The calf hid its nose
under its mother's side, and frisked its tail.
"Bring the light this way, Feodor, this way," said
Levin, examining the calf. " Like its mother, but its
color is like the sire's, very pretty ! long hair and
prettily spotted. Vasili Feodorovitch, is n't it a beauty.'' "
he said, turning to his intendant, forgetting, in his joy
over the new-born calf, the grief caused by the burning
of his wheat.
" Why should it be homely ? But Semyon the con-
tractor was here the day after you left. It will be
necessary to come to terms with him, Konstantin
Dmitritch," replied the intendant. " I have already
spoken to you about the machine."
This single phrase brought Levin back to all the de-
ANNA KARENINA 123
tails of his enterprise, which was great and complicated ;
and from the stable he went directly to the office, and
after a long conversation with the intendant and Semyon
the contractor, he went back to the house, and marched
straight up into the drawing-room.
CHAPTER XXVII
Levin's house was old and large, but, though he lived
there alone, he occupied and warmed the whole of it.
He knew that this was ridiculous ; he knew that it was
bad, and contrary to his new plans ; but this house was
a world in itself to him. It was a world where his father
and mother had lived and died. They had lived a life
which, for Levin, seemed the ideal of all perfection, and
which he dreamed of renewing with his own wife, with
his own family.
Levin scarcely remembered his mother. But this
remembrance was sacred ; and his future wife, as he
imagined her, was to be the counterpart of the ideally
charming and adorable woman, his mother. For him,
love for a woman could not exist outside of marriage ;
but he imagined the family relationship first, and only
afterwards the woman who would be the center of the
family. His ideas about marriage were therefore es-
sentially different from those held by the majority of
his friends, for whom it was only one of innumerable
social affairs ; for Levin it was the most important act
of his life, whereon all his happiness depended, and now
he must renounce it !
When he entered the little parlor where he always
took tea, and threw himself into his arm-chair with a
book, while Agafya Mikhailovna brought him his cup,
and sat down near the window, saying as usual, ''Well,
I'll sit down, batyushka," — then he felt, strangely
enough, that he had not renounced his day-dreams, and
that he could not live without them. Were it Kitty or
another, still it would be. He read his book, had his
mind on what he was reading, pausing occasionally to
il4 ANNA KARENINA
listen to Agafya Mikhallovna's unceasing prattle, but
his imagination was all the time filled with those varied
pictures of family happiness which hovered before him.
He felt that in the depths of his soul some change, some
modification, some crystallization, was taking place.
He listened while Agafya Mikhailovna told how Pro-
khor had forgotten God, and, instead of buying a horse
with the money which Levin had given him, had taken
it and gone on a spree, and beaten his wife almost to
death ; and while he listened he read his book, and again
caught the thread of his thoughts, awakened by his
reading. It was a book by Tyndall, on heat. He re-
membered his criticisms on Tyndall's self-satisfaction in
the cleverness of his management of his experiments
and on his lack of philosophical views, and suddenly a
happy thought crossed his mind : —
" In two years I shall have two Holland cows ; per-
haps Pava herself will still be alive, and possibly a dozen
of Berkut's daughters will have been added to the herd,
just from these three ! Splendid ! "
And again he picked up his book.
" Well ! very good : electricity and heat are one and
the same thing; but could one quantity take the place
of the other in the equations used to settle this problem.?
No. What then .-• The bond between all the forces of na-
ture is felt, like instinct When Pavas daughter grows
into a cow with red and white spots, what a herd I shall
have with those three ! Admirable ! And my wife and I
will go out with our guests to see the herd come in ; ....
and my wife will say, ' Kostia and I have brought this
calf up just like a child.' — * How can this interest you
so } ' the guests will say, ' All that interests him
interests me also.*.... But who will s/ie he?" and he
began to think of what had happened in Moscow. —
"Well! What is to be done about it .-•.... I am not to
blame. But now everything will be different. It is
foolishness to let one's past life dominate the present.
One must struggle to live better — much better."..,.
He raised his head, and sank into thought. Old
Laska, who had not yet got over her delight at her
ANNA KARENINA 125
master's return, had been barking up and down the
courtyard. She came into the room, wagging her tail,
and bringing the freshness of the open air, and thrust
her head under his hand, and begged for a caress, whin-
ing plaintively.
" She almost talks," said Agafya Mikhailovna; "she
is only a dog, but she knows just as well that her master
has come home, and is sad."
"Why sad?"
"Da! don't I see it, batyushka? It's time I knew
how to read my masters. Grew up with my masters
since they were children! No matter, batyushka; your
health is good and your conscience pure."
Levin looked at her earnestly, in astonishment that
she so divined his thoughts.
"And shall I give you some more tea?" said she;
and taking the cup, she went out.
Laska continued to nestle her head in her master's
hand. He caressed her, and then she curled herself up
around his feet, like a ring, laying her head on one of
her hind paws ; and, as a proof that all was arranged to
suit her, she opened her mouth a little, let her tongue
slip out between her aged teeth, and, with a gentle puff-
ing of her lips, gave herself up to beatific repose. Levin
followed all of her movements.
" So will I ! " he said to himself; "so will I! no mat-
ter! all will be well!"
CHAPTER XXVni
Early on the morning after the ball, Anna Arka-
dyevna sent her husband a telegram, announcing that
she was going to leave Moscow that day.
" No, I must, I must go," she said to her sister-in-law,
in explanation of her change of plan, and her tone signi-
fied that she had just remembered something that de-
manded her instant attention. " No, it would be much
better if I could go tliis morning."
Stepan Arkadyevitch did not dine at home, but he
126 ANNA KARENINA
agreed to be back at seven o'clock to escort his sister to
the train.
Kitty did not put in an appearance, but sent word
that she had a headache. Dolly and Anna dined alone
with the children and the English governess. Either
the children were fickle or they were very sensitive and
felt that Anna was not at all as she had been on the
day when they had taken so kindly to her, that she no
longer cared for them, for they suddenly ceased playing
with their aunt, seemed to lose their affection for her,
and cared very little that she was going away.
Anna spent the whole morning in making the prep-
arations for her departure. She wrote a few notes to
her Moscow acquaintances, settled her accounts, and
packed. To Dolly especially it seemed that she was not
in a happy frame of mind, but in that state of mental agi-
tation which Dolly knew from experience arose, not with-
out excellent reason, from dissatisfaction with herself.
After dinner Anna went to her room to dress, and
Dolly followed her.
" How strange you are to-day ! " said Dolly.
" I .'' Do you think so ? I am not strange, but I am
cross. This is common with me. I should like to have
a good cry. It is very silly, but it will pass away," said
Anna, speaking quickly, and hiding her blushing face in
a little bag where she was packing her toilet articles and
her handkerchiefs. Her eyes shone with tears which she
could hardly keep back. " I was so loath to come away
from Petersburg, and now I don't want to go back! "
"You came here and you did a lovely thing," said
Dolly, attentively observing her.
Anna looked at her with eyes wet with tears.
"Don't say that, Dolly. I have done nothing, and
could do nothing. I often ask myself why people say
things to spoil me. What have I done .'' What could I
do ? You found that your heart had enough love left to
forgive." ....
" Without you, God knows what would have been !
How fortunate you are, Anna!" said Dolly. "All is
serene and pure in your soul."
ANNA KARENINA 127
" Every one has a skeleton in his closet, as the Engb'sh
say."
" What skeleton have you, pray ? In you everything
is so serene."
" I have mine ! " cried Anna, suddenly ; and an unex-
pected, crafty, mocking smile hovered over her lips in
spite of her tears.
" Well ! in your case the skeleton must be a droll one,
and not grievous," replied Dolly, with a smile.
" No ; it is grievous ! Do you know why I go to-day,
and not to-morrow ">. This is a confession which weighs
me down, but I wish to make it," said Anna, decidedly,
sitting down in an arm-chair, and looking Dolly straight
in the eyes.
And to her astonishment she saw that Anna was
blushing, even to her ears, even to the dark curls that
played about the back of her neck.
" Yes ! " Anna proceeded. " Do you know why Kitty
did not come to dinner } She is jealous of me. I spoiled
.... it was through me that the ball last night was a tor-
ment and not a joy to her. But truly, truly, I was not
to blame, —or not much to blame," said she, with a
special accent on the word nemnozJiko — not much.
" Oh, how exactly you said that like Stiva ! " remarked
Dolly, laughing.
Anna was vexed.
" Oh, no ! Oh, no ! I am not like Stiva," said she,
frowning. " I have told you this simply because I do
not allow myself, for an instant, to doubt myself."
But the very moment that she said these words, she
perceived how untrue they were ; she not only doubted
herself, but she felt such emotion at the thought of
Vronsky that she took her departure sooner than she
otherwise would, so that she might not meet him again.
"Yes, Stiva told me that you danced the mazurka
with him, and that he...."
"You cannot imagine how ridiculously it turned out.
I thought only to help along the match, and suddenly it
went exactly opposite. Perhaps against my will, I ...."
She blushed, and did not finish her sentence.
128 ANNA KARENINA
" Oh ! these things are felt instantly," said Dolly,
" I should be in despair if I felt that there was any-
thing serious on his part," interrupted Anna; "but I
am convinced that all this will be quickly forgotten,
and that Kitty will not long be angry with me."
" In the lirst place, Anna, to tell the truth, I should
not be very sorry if this marriage fell through. It would
be vastly better for it to stop right here if Vronsky can
fall in love with you in a single day."
" Oh heavens ! that would be so idiotic ! " said Anna,
and again an intense blush of satisfaction overspread
her face at hearing the thought that occupied her ex-
pressed in words. " And that is why I go away, after
making an enemy of Kitty, whom I loved so dearly.
Akh ! how sweet she is ! But you will arrange that,
Dolly.? Won't you.?"
Dolly could hardly refrain from smiling. She loved
Anna, but it was pleasant to her to discover that she
also had her weaknesses.
" An enemy .? That cannot be ! "
" And I should have been so glad to have you all love
me as I love you ; but now I love you all more than
ever," said Anna, with tears in her eyes. "Akh! how
absurd I am to-day ! "
She passed her handkerchief over her eyes, and began
to get ready.
At the very moment of her departure came Stepan
Arkadyevitch with rosy, happy face, and an odor of wine
and cigars.
Anna's tender-heartedness had communicated itself
to Dolly, and, when she kissed her for the last time, she
whispered : —
" Think, Anna ! what you have done for me ! I shall
never forget. And remember that I love you, and al-
ways shall love you as my best friend ! "
" I don't understand why," replied Anna, kissing her,
and struggling with her tears.
" You have understood me, and you do understand
me. Farewell, my dearest ! " ^
* Proshchai, vioya pretest t
ANNA KARENINA 129
CHAPTER XXIX
" Well ! all is over, and thank the Lord ! " was Anna's
first thought after she had said good-by to her brother,
who had blocked up the entrance to the railway-carriage,
even after the third bell had rung. She sat down on
the divanchik next Annushka, her maid, and began to
examine the feebly lighted compartment. "Thank the
Lord ! to-morrow I shall see Serozha and Alekseif Alek-
sandrovitch, and my good and commonplace life will
begin again as of old."
With the same mental preoccupation that had pos-
sessed her all that day, Anna found a satisfaction in
attending minutely to the arrangements for the journey.
With her skilful little hands she opened her red bag,
and took out a cushion, placed it on her knees, wrapped
her feet warmly, and composed herself comfortably.
A lady, who seemed to be an invalid, had already
gone to sleep. Two other ladies entered into conversa.
tion with Anna ; and a fat, elderly dame, well wrapped
up, expressed her opinion on the temperature. Anna
exchanged a few words with the ladies, but, not taking
any interest in their conversation, asked Annushka for
her traveling-lamp, placed it on the back of her seat,
and took from her bag a paper-cutter and an English
novel. At first she could not read ; the going and com-
ing and the general bustle disturbed her ; when once
the train had started, she could not help listening to
the noises : the snow striking against the window, and
sticking to the glass ; the conductor, as he passed with
the snowflakes melting on his coat ; the remarks about
the terrible storm, — all distracted her attention.
Afterwards it became more monotonous : always the
same jolting and jarring, the same snow on the window,
the same sudden changes from warmth to cold, and back
to warmth again, the same faces in the dim light, and
the same voices. And Anna began to read, and to fol-
low what she was reading.
Annushka was already asleep, holding the little red
ijo ANNA KARENINA
bag on her knees with great, clumsy hands, clad in
gloves, one of which was torn.
Anna read, and understood what she read ; but it
was not pleasant to her to read, in other words to enter
into the lives of other people. She had too keen a
desire to live herself. If she read how the heroine of
her story took care of the sick, she would have liked
to go with noiseless steps into the sick-room. If she
read how a member of Parliament made a speech, she
would have liked to make that speech. If she read how
Lady Mary rode after the hounds, and made sport of
her sister-in-law, and astonished every one by her au-
dacity, she would have liked to do the same. But she
could do nothing ; and with her little hands she clutched
the paper-cutter, and forced herself to read calmly.
The hero of her novel had reached the summit of his
English ambition, — a baronetcy and an estate; and
Anna felt a desire to go with him to this estate, when
suddenly it seemed to her that he ought to feel a sense
of shame, and that she ought to share it. But why should
he feel ashamed } " Why should I feel ashamed } " she
asked herself with astonishment and discontent. She
closed the book, and, leaning back against the chair,
held the paper-cutter tightly in both hands.
There was nothing to be ashamed of : she reviewed
all her memories of her visit to Moscow ; they were all
pleasant and good. She remembered the ball, she
remembered Vronsky and his humble and passionate
face, she recalled all her relations with him ; there was
nothing to be ashamed of. But at the same time in
these reminiscences the sense of shame kept growing
stronger and stronger ; and it seemed to her that in-
ward voice, whenever she thought of Vronsky, seemed
to say, "Warmly, very warmly, passionately."....
"Well! what is this.^" she asked herself resolutely,
as she changed her position in the seat. "What does
this mean .-' Am I afraid to face these memories ^ Well !
what is it."* Is there, can there be, any relationship
between that boy-officer and me beyond what exists
between all acquaintances.-'"
ANNA KARENINA 131
She smiled disdainfully, and again took up her book ;
but now she really could not any longer comprehend
what she was reading. She rubbed her paper-cutter
over the pane, and then pressed its cool, smooth surface
to her cheek, and then she almost laughed out loud with
the joy that unreasonably took possession of her. She
felt her nerves grow more and more tense like the
strings on some musical instrument screwed up to the
last degree ; she felt her eyes open wider and wider,
her fingers and her toes twitched nervously, something
seemed to choke her, and all objects and sounds in the
wavering semi-darkness surprised her by their exag-
gerated proportions. She kept having moments of
doubt as to whether they were going backwards or
forwards, or if the train had come to a stop. Was it
Annushka there, sitting next her, or was it a stranger ?
" What is that on the hook .-' — my fur shuba or an
animal ? And what am I doing here ? Am I myself,
or some one else ."* "
It was terrible to her to yield to these hallucinations ;
but something kept attracting her to them and she could
by her own will either yield to them or withdraw from
them. In order to regain possession of herself, Anna
arose, took off her plaid and laid aside her pelerine of
thick cloth. For a moment she thought that she had con-
quered herself, for when a tall, thin muzhik, dressed in
a long nankeen overcoat, which lacked a button, came
in, she recognized in him the stove-tender. She saw
him look at the thermometer, and noticed how the wind
and the snow came blowing in as he opened the door ;
and then everything became confused again.
The tall peasant began to draw fantastic figures on
the wall ; the old lady seemed to stretch out her legs,
and fill the whole carriage as with a black cloud ; then
she thought she heard a terrible thumping and rapping,
a noise like something tearing ; then a red and blinding
fire flashed in her eyes, and then all vanished in dark-
ness. Anna felt as if she was falling. But this was
not at all alarming, but rather pleasant.
The voice of a man all wrapped up, and covered with
132 ANNA KARENINA
snow, shouted something in her ear. She started up,
recovered her wits, and perceived that they were ap.
proaching a station, and the man was the conductor.
She bade Annushka give her the pelerine which she had
laid aside and her handkerchief, and, having put them
on, she went to the door.
, " Do you wish to go out .-' " asked Annushka.
" Yes ; I want to get a breath of fresh air. It is very
hot here."
And she opened the door. The snow-storm and the
wind rushed in to meet her and disputed the door with
her. And this seemed to her very jolly. The storm
seemed to be waiting for her, it gayly whistled and was
eager to carry her away ; but she clung to the cold rail-
ing with one hand, and, holding her dress, she stepped
out on the platform, and left the car. The wind was
fierce on the steps, but on the platform, under the shel-
ter of the station, it was calmer, and she found a genuine
pleasure in filling her lungs with the frosty air. Stand'
ing near the car she watched the platform and the stE'
tion gleaming with lights.
CHAPTER XXX
A FURIOUS snow-storm was raging, and whistlings
among the wheels of the carriages, around the columns,
and into the corners of the station. The carriages, the
pillars, the people, everything visible, were covered on
one side with snow, and it was increasing momently.
Once in a while there would be a lull, but then again it
blew with such gusts that it seemed impossible to make
way against it. Meantime a few people were running
hither and thither, talking gayly, opening and shutting
the great doors of the station, and making the platform
planks creak under their feet. The flitting shadow of a
man passed rapidly by her feet, and she heard the blows
of a hammer falling on the iron.
" Send off the telegram," cried an angry voice on the
ANNA KARENINA 133
other side of the track in the midst of the drifting
storm.
"This way, please, No. 28," cried other voices, and
several people covered with snow hurried by. Two
gentlemen, with lighted cigarettes in their mouths,
passed near Anna. She was just about to reenter the
carriage, after getting one more breath of fresh air, and
had already taken her hand from her muff, to lay hold
of the railing, when the flickering light from the reflector
was cut off by a man in a military coat, who came close
to her. She looked up, and that instant recognized
Vronsky's face.
Raising his hand to his vizor he bowed low, and asked
if she needed anything, if he might not be of service to
her.
She looked at him for a considerable time without
replying, and although he was in the shadow, she saw,
or thought she saw, the expression of his face and even
of his eyes. It was a repetition of that respectful ad-
miration which had so impressed her on the evening
of the ball. More than once that day she had said to
herself that Vronsky, for her, was only one of the
hundred young men whom one meets in society, that
she would never permit herself to give him a second
thought ! but now, on the first instant of seeing him
again, a sensation of pride and joy seized her. She
had no need to ask why he was there. She knew, as
truly as if he had told her, that he was there so as to be
where she was.
" I did not know that you were going to Petersburg.
Why are you going .<• " said she, letting her hand fall
from the railing. A joy which she could not restrain
shone in her face.
"Why am I going .-• " he repeated, looking straight
into her eyes. "You know that I came simply for this,
— to be where you are," he said. "I could not do
otherwise."
And at this instant the wind, as if it had conquered
every obstacle, blew the snow from the roofs of the
carriages, and whirled away a piece of sheet-iron
134 ANNA KARENINA
which it had torn off, and at the same time the deep
whistle of the locomotive gave a melancholy, mournful
cry. Never had the horror of a tempest appeared to
her more beautiful than now. He had said what her
heart longed to hear but what her better judgment con-
demned. She made no reply, but he perceived by her
face how she fought against herself.
" Forgive me if what I said displeases you," he mur-
mured humbly.
He spoke respectfully, courteously, but in such a reso-
lute, decided tone, that for some time she was unable to
reply.
" What you said was wrong ; and I beg of you, if you
are a gentleman, to forget it, as I shall forget it," said
she at last.
" I shall never forget, and I shall never be able to
forget any of your words, any of your gestures .... "
" Enough, enough ! " she cried, vainly endeavoring to
give an expression of severity to her face, at which
Vronsky was passionately gazing. And grasping the
cold railing she mounted the steps, and quickly entered
the vestibule of the carriage. But she stopped in the
little vestibule, and tried to recall to her imagination
what had taken place. But though she found it impos-
sible to remember either her own words or his, she in-
stinctively felt that this brief conversation had brought
them frightfully close together, and she was at once
alarmed and delighted. After she had stood there a
few seconds, she went back into the carriage and sat
down in her place.
The nervous strain which had been tormenting her not
only returned, but became more intense, until she began
to fear every moment that something would snap her
brain. She did not sleep all night ; but in this nervous
tension, and in the fantasies which filled her imagina-
tion, there was nothing disagreeable or painful ; on the
contrary, it was joyous, burning excitement.
Toward morning, Anna dozed as she sat in her arm-
chair ; and when she awoke it was broad daylight, and
the train was approaching Petersburg. Instantly the
ANNA KARENINA 135
thought of her home, her husband, her son, and all the
labors of the day and the coming days, filled her mind.
The train had hardly reached the station at Peters-
burg, when Anna stepped out on the platform ; and the
first person that she saw was her husband waiting for
her.
" Oh, good heavens ! Why do his ears stand out so ! " /
she thought, as she looked at his reserved and portly
figure and especially at his stiff cartilaginous ears, which,
as they propped up the rim of his round hat, struck her
for the first time. When he saw her, he came to meet
her at the carriage, compressing his lips into his habitual
smile of irony, looking straight at her with his great,
weary eyes. A disagreeable thought made her heart
sink when she saw his stubborn, weary look ; she felt
that she had expected to find him different. Especially
was she astounded by the feeling of self-dissatisfaction
which she experienced on meeting him. This feeling
was associated with her home, akin to the state of hypoc-
risy which she recognized in her relations with her hus-
band. This feeling was not novel ; she had felt it before
without heeding it, but now she realized it clearly and
painfully.
"There! you see, I'm a tender husband, tender as
the first year of our marriage ; I was burning with desire
to see you," said he, in his slow, deliberate voice, and
with the light tone of raillery that he generally used in
speaking to her, a tone of ridicule of any one who
should really say such things.
" Is Serozha well ? " she asked.
" And is this all the reward," he said, "for my ardor?
He is well, very well." ....
CHAPTER XXXI
Vronsky also had not even attempted to sleep all that
night. He sat in his arm-chair, now gazing straight for-
ward, now looking at those who came in and went out,
and if before he had impressed strangers and irritated
136 ANNA KARENINA
them by his imperturbable dignity, now he would have
seemed to them far more haughty and self-contained
He looked at men as if they were things. A nervous
young man, employed in the district court, was sitting
opposite him in the carriage, and cam-e to hate him on
account of this aspect. The young man asked for a
light, and spoke to him, and even touched him, in order
to make him perceive that he was not a thing but a
man ; yet Vronsky looked at him exactly as he looked
at the carriage-lamp. And the young man made a
grimace, feeling that he should lose command of him-
self to be so scorned by a man.
Vronsky saw nothing, saw no one. He felt as if he
were a tsar, not because he believed that he had made
an impression upon Anna, — he did not fully realize
that, as yet, — but because the impression which she
had made on him filled him with happiness and pride.
What would be the outcome of all this he did not
know, and did not even consider ; but he felt that all
his hitherto dissipated and scattered powers were now
concentrating and converging with frightful rapidity
toward one beatific focus. And he was happy in
this thought. He knew only that he had told her the
truth when he said he was going where she was, that
all the happiness of life, the sole significance of life, he
found now in seeing and hearing her. And when he left
his compartment at Bologovo to get a glass of seltzer,
and he saw Anna, involuntarily his first word told her
what he thought. And he was glad that he had spoken
as he did ; glad that she knew all now, and was thinking
about it. He did not sleep all night. Returning to his
carriage he did not cease recalling all his memories of
her, the words that she had spoken, and in his imagina-
tion glowed the pictures of a possible future which over-
whelmed his heart.
When, on reaching Petersburg, he left the carriage,
after his sleepless night he felt as fresh and vigorous as
if he had just had a cold bath. He stood near his car-
riage, waiting to see her pass. " Once more I shall see
her," he said to himself, with a smile. "I shall see her
ANNA KARENINA 137
graceful bearing, her face ; she will speak a word to me,
will turn her head, will look at me, perhaps she will
smile on me."
But it was her husband whom first he saw, politely
escorted through the crowd by the station-master.
" Oh, yes ! the husband ! "
And then Vronsky for the first time clearly realized
that the husband was an important factor in Anna's life.
He knew that she had a husband, but he had not realized
his existence, and he now fully realized it only as he saw
his head and shoulders, and his legs clothed in black
trowsers, and especially when he saw this husband un-
concernedly take her hand with an air of proprietorship.
When he saw AlekseY Aleksandrovitch with his
Petersburgish-fresh face, and his solid, self-confident
figure, his round hat, and his slightly stooping shoul-
ders, he began to believe in his existence, and he expe-
rienced an unpleasant sensation such as a man tormented
by thirst might experience, who should discover a foun-
tain, but find that a dog, a sheep, or a pig has been
drinking and fouling the water.
Aleksei Aleksandrovitch's stiff and heavy gait was
exceedingly distasteful to Vronsky. He would not ac-
knowledge that any one besides himself had the right
to love Anna. But she was still the same and the sight
of her had still the same effect on him, physically kind-
ling him, stirring him, and filling his heart with joy.
He ordered his German body-servant, who came hurry-
ing up to him from the second-class carriage, to see to
the baggage and to go home ; and he himself went to
her. Thus he witnessed the first meeting between
husband and wife, and with a lover's intuition, perceived
the shade of constraint with which Anna spoke to her
husband.
" No, she does not love him, and she cannot love
him," was his mental judgment.
Even as he came up to Anna Arkadyevna from behind,
he noticed with joy that she felt him near her and
looked round, and having recognized him, she went on
talking with her husband.
ijS ANNA KARENINA
"Did yon pass a good night?" he inquired, bowing
to her and her husband and allowing Aleksei" Aleksan-
drovitch the opportunity to accept the honor of the salu-
tation and recognize him or not recognize him as it might
seem good to him.
" Thank you, very good," she replied.
Her face expressed weariness, lacked that spark of
animation which was generally hovering now in her
eyes, now in her smile ; but, for a single instant, at the
sight of Vronsky, something flashed into her eyes, and,
notwithstanding the fact that the fire instantly died
away, he was overjoyed even at this. She raised her
eyes to her husband, to see whether he knew Vronsky.
AlekseY Aleksandrovitch looked at him with displeasure,
vaguely remembering who he was. Vronsky's calm
self-assurance struck upon Aleksef Aleksandrovitch's
cool superciliousness as a scythe strikes a rock.
" Count Vronsky," said Anna.
" Ah ! We have met before, it seems to me," said
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch with indifference, extending
his hand. " Went with the mother, and came home
with the son," said he, speaking with precision, as if
his words were worth a ruble apiece. " I presume you
are returning from a furlough .-" " And without waiting
for an answer, he turned to his wife, in his ironical tone,
" Did they shed many tears in Moscow on your leaving
them .-• "
By thus addressing his wife he intended to give
Vronsky to understand that he desired to be left alone,
and again bowing to him he touched his hat ; but Vron-
sky had one more word to say to Anna.
" I hope to have the honor of calling on you," said
he.
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, with weary eyes, looked at
Vronsky,
"Very happy," he said coldly; "we receive on Mon-
days."
Then, leaving Vronsky entirely, he said to his wife,
still in a jesting tone : —
" And how fortunate that I happened to have a spare
ANNA KARENINA 139
half-hour to come to meet you, and show you my affec-
tion."
"You emphasize your affection too much for me to
appreciate it," she replied, in the same spirit of raillery,
involuntarily listening to Vronsky's steps behind them.
" But what is that to me .-' " she asked herself in thought.
Then she began to ask her husband how Serozha had
got along during her absence.
" Oh ! excellently. Mariette says that he has been
very good, and ....I am sorry to mortify you .... he did
not seem to miss you — not so much as your husband
did. But again, merci, my dear, that you came a day
earlier, . Our dear Samovar will be delighted."
He called the celebrated Countess Lidya Ivanovna
by the nickname of the Satnovar, because, like a tea-
urn, she was always and everywhere bubbling and boil-
ing. " She has kept asking after you ; and do you
know, if I make bold to advise you, you would do well
to go to see her to-day. You see, her heart is always
sore about something. At present, besides her usual
cares, she is greatly concerned about the reconciliation
of the Oblonskys."
The Countess Lidya Ivanovna was a friend of Anna's
husband, and the center of a certain clique in Peters-
burg society, to which Anna on her husband's account,
rather than for any other reason, belonged.
" Yes ! But did n't I write her > "
" She must have all the details. Go to her, my love,
if you are not too tired. Well ! Kondratu will call
your carriage, and I am going to a committee-meeting.
I shall not have to dine alone to-day," continued Aleksei
Aleksandrovitch, not in jest this time, "You cannot
imagine how used I am to.,., "
And with a peculiar smile, giving her a long pressure
of the hand, he conducted her to the carriage.
I40 ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER XXXII
The first person to meet Anna when she reached
home was her son. He darted down-stairs, in spite of
his governess's reproof, and with wild deUght cried,
" Mamma ! mamma ! " Rushing up to her he threw
his arms round her neck.
" I told you it was mamma ! " he shouted to the gov-
erness. " I knew it was ! "
But the son, no less than the husband, awakened in
Anna a feeling like disillusion. She imagined him bet-
ter than he was in reality. She was obliged to descend
to the reality in order to look on him as he was. But in
fact, he was lovely, with his fair curls, his blue eyes, and
his pretty plump legs in their neatly fitting stockings.
She felt an almost physical satisfaction in feeling him
near her, and in his caresses, and a moral calm in looking
into his tender, confiding, loving eyes, and in hearing
his innocent questions. She unpacked the gifts sent
him by Dolly's children, and told him how there was
a little girl in Moscow, named Tanya, and how this
Tanya knew how to read, and was teaching the other
children to read.
" Am I not as good as she } " asked Serozha.
" Eor me, you are worth all the rest of the world."
" I know it," said Serozha, smiling.
Anna had not finished drinking her coffee, when the
Countess Lidya Ivanovna was announced. The Coun-
tess Lidya Ivanovna was a tall, stout woman, with an
unhealthy, sallow complexion, and handsome, dreamy
black eyes. Anna liked her, but to-day, as if for the
first time, she saw her with all her faults.
" Well ! my dear, did you carry the olive-branch .'' "
demanded the Countess Lidya Ivanovna, as she entered
the room.
"Yes, it is all made up," replied Anna; "but it was
not so bad as we thought. As a general thing, my
sister-in-law is too peremptory."
But the Countess Lidya, who was interested in every-
ANNA KARENINA 141
thing that did not specially concern herself, had the habit
of sometimes not heeding what did interest her. She
interrupted Anna : —
"Well! This world is full of woes and tribulations,
and I am all worn out to-day."
" What is it ? " asked Anna, striving to repress a
smile.
" I am beginning to weary of the ineffectual attempts
to get at the truth, and sometimes I am utterly discour-
aged. The work of the Little Sisters " — this was a phil-
anthropic and religiously patriotic institution — " used
to get along splendidly, but there is nothing to be done
with these men," added the Countess Lidya Ivanovna,
with an air of ironical resignation to fate. " They got
hold of the idea, they mutilated it, and then they judge
it so meanly, so wretchedly. Two or three men, your
husband among them, understand all the significance of
this work ; but the others only discredit it. Yesterday
I had a letter from Pravdin .... "
Pravdin was a famous Panslavist, who lived abroad,
and the Countess Lidya Ivanovna related what he had
said in his letter.
Then she went on to describe the troubles and snares
that blocked the work of uniting the churches, and
finally departed in haste, because it was the day for her
to be present at the meeting of some society or other,
and at the sitting of the Slavonic Committee.
"All this is just as it has been, but why did I never
notice it before ? " said Anna to herself. " Was she very
irritable to-day .-• But at any rate, it is ridiculous : her
aims are charitable, she is a Christian, and yet she is
angry with every one, and every one is her enemy ; and
yet all h6r enemies are working for Christianity and
charity."
After the departure of the Countess Lidya Ivanovna,
came a friend, the wife of a director, who told her all
the news of the city. At three o'clock she went out,
promising to be back in time for dinner. Alekseif Alek-
sandrovitch was at the meeting of the ministry. The
hour before dinner, which Anna spent alone, she em-
142 ANNA KARENINA
ployed sitting with her son, — who had his dinner by
himself, — in arranging her things, and in reading and
answering the letters and notes heaped up on her writ-
ing-table.
The sensation of causeless shame, and the agitation
from which she had suffered so strangely during her
journey, now completely disappeared. Under the con-
ditions of her ordinary every-day life, she felt calm, and
free from reproach, and she was filled with wonder as
she recalled her condition of the night before.
" What was it ? Nothing. Vronsky said a foolish
thing ; it is easy to put an end to such nonsense, and I
answered him exactly right. To speak of it to my hus-
band is unnecessary and impossible. To speak about
it would seem to attach importance to what has none."
And she recalled how, when a young subordinate of
her husband's in Petersburg had almost made her a
declaration and she had told him about it, Aleksef Alek-
sandrovitch answered that as she went into society, she,
like all society women, might expect such experiences,
but that he had perfect confidence in her tact, and never
would permit himself to humiliate her or him by jealousy.
" Why tell, then ? Besides, thank God, there is nothing
to tell."
CHAPTER XXXIII
Aleksei Aleksandrovitch returned from the min-
istry about four o'clock ; but, as often happened, he
found no time to speak to Anna. He went directly to
his private room to give audience to some petitioners
who were waiting for him, and to sign some papers
brought him by his chief secretary.
The Karenins always had at least three visitors to
dine with them ; and that day there came an old lady,
a cousin of Aleksef Aleksandrovitch's, a department di-
rector with his wife, and a young man recommended to
AlekseY Aleksandrovitch for employment. Anna came
to the drawing-room to receive them at five o'clock pre-
ANNA KARENINA 143
cisely. The great bronze clock, of the time of Peter the
Great, had not yet finished its fifth stroke, when Aleksel
Aleksandrovitch, in white cravat, and with two decora-
tions on his dress-coat, left his dressing-room ; he had
an engagement immediately after dinner. Every mo-
ment of Alekse'i" Aleksandrovitch's life was counted and
occupied ; and in order to accomplish what he had to do
every day, he was forced to use the strictest punctuality.
"Without haste, and without rest," was his motto. He
entered the dining-room, bowed to his guests, and, giv-
ing his wife a smile, hastily sat down.
"Yes, my solitude is over! You can't believe how
irksome," — he laid a special stress on the word nelovko,
irksome, — " it is to dine alone ! "
During the dinner he talked with his wife about mat-
ters in Moscow, and, with his mocking smile, inquired
especially about Stepan Arkadyevitch ; but the conver-
sation dwelt for the most part on common subjects,
about official and social matters in Petersburg. After
dinner he spent a half-hour with his guests, and then,
giving his wife another smile, and pressing her hand, he
left the room and went to the council.
Anna did not go out that evening either to the Prin-
cess Betsy Tverskaya's, who, having heard of her arri-
val, had sent her an invitation ; or to the theater, where
she just now had a box. She did not go out principally
because the gown on which she had counted was not
finished. After the departure of her guests, Anna took
a general survey of her wardrobe, and was very angry.
She was extremely clever in dressing at small expense,
and just before she went to Moscow she had given
three gowns to her dressmaker to make over. These
gowns required to be made over in such a way that no
one would recognize them, and they should have been
ready three days before. Two of the gowns proved
to be absolutely unfinished, and one was not made over
in a way which Anna liked. The dressmaker sought
to explain what she had done, declaring that her way
was best ; and Anna reprimanded her so severely that
afterwards she felt ashamed of herself. To calm her
144 ANNA KARENINA
agitation, she went to the nursery, and spent the whole
evening with her son, put him to bed herself, made the
sign of the cross over him, and tucked the quilt about
him. She was glad that she had not gone out, and
that she had spent such a happy evening. It was so
quiet and restful, and now she saw clearly that all that
had seemed so important during her railway journey
was only one of the ordinary insignificant events of
social life, — that she had nothing of which to be
ashamed, either in her own eyes, or in the eyes of
others. She sat down in front of the fireplace with her
English novel, and waited for her husband. At half-
past ten exactly his ring was heard at the door, and he
.came into the room.
" Here you are, at last," she said, giving him her
hand. He kissed her hand, and sat down near her.
" Your journey, I see, was on the whole very success-
ful," said he.
"Yes, very," she replied; and she began to relate all
the details from the beginning — her journey with the
Countess Vronskaya, her arrival, the accident at the
station, the pity which she had felt, first for her brother,
and afterwards for Dolly.
" I do not see how it is possible to pardon such a
man, even though he is your brother," said Aleksel
Aleksandrovitch, severely.
Anna smiled. She appreciated that he said this to
show that not even kinship could bend him from the
strictness of his honest judgment. She knew this trait
in her husband's character, and liked it.
" I am glad that all ended so satisfactorily, and that
you have come home again," he continued, " Well !
what do they say there about the new measures that
I introduced in the council .■• "
Anna had heard nothing said about this new measure,
and she was confused because she had so easily forgotten
something which to him was so important.
" Here, on the contrary, it has made a great sensa-
tion," said he, with a self-satisfied smile.
She saw that Aleksei" Aleksandrovitch wanted to tell
ANNA KARENINA 145
her something very flattering to himself about this
affair, and, by means of questions, she led him up to
the story. And he, with the same self-satisfied smile,
began to tell her of the congratulations which he had
received on account of this measure, which had been
passed.
" I was very, very glad. This proves that at last
reasonable and serious views about this question are
beginning to be formed among us."
After he had taken his second glass of tea, with cream
and bread, Aleksei" Aleksandrovitch arose to go to his
library.
" But you did not go out ; was it very tiresome for
you }" he said.
" Oh, no ! " she replied, rising with her husband, and
going with him through the hall to the library.
" What are you reading now ? " she asked. d
"Just now I am reading the Due de Lille — Po/sie
des enfers'' he replied, "a very remarkable book."
Anna smiled, as one smiles at the weaknesses of those
we love, and, passing her arm through her husband's,
accompanied him to the library door. She knew that
his habit of reading in the evening had become inex-
orable, and that, notwithstanding his absorbing duties,
which took so much of his time at the council, he felt
it his duty to follow all that seemed remarkable in the
sphere of literature. She also knew that while he felt
a special interest in works on political economy, philoso-
phy, and religion, art was quite foreign to his nature ;
and notwithstanding this, or better, for that very reason,
Aleksei Aleksandrovitch allowed nothing that was at-
tracting attention in that field to escape his notice, but
considered it his duty to read everything. She knew
that in the province of political economy, philosophy,
religion, Aleksei" Aleksandrovitch had doubts, and tried
to solve them ; but in questions of art or poetry, par-
ticularly in music, the comprehension of which was
utterly beyond him, he had the most precise and defi-
nite opinions. He loved to talk of Shakespeare, Raphael,
and Beethoven ; of the importance of the new school
146 ANNA KARENINA
of music and poetry, — all of whom were classed by
him according to the most rigorous logic.
"Well! God be with you," she said, as they reached
the door of the library. Near her husband's arm-chair
were standing, as usual, the shade-lamp already lighted,
and a carafe with water. " And I am going to write to
Moscow."
Again he pressed her hand, and kissed it.
"Taken all in all, he is a good man ; upright, excel-
lent, remarkable in his sphere," said Anna to herself,
on her way to her room, as if she was defending him
from some one who accused him of not being lov-
able.
" But why do his ears stick out so ? Or does he cut
his hair too short .■* "
It was just midnight, and Anna was still sitting at
her writing-table finishing a letter to Dolly, when meas-
ured steps in slippers were heard ; and Aleksef Alek-
sandrovitch, who had washed his face and brushed his
hair, came in with his book under his arm.
" Late, late," said he, with his usual smile, and passed
on to his sleeping-room.
" And what right had he to look at him so .'' " thought
Anna, recalling Vronsky's expression when he saw Alek-
seif Aleksandrovitch. Having undressed, she went to
her room ; but in her face there was none of that ani-
mation that shone in her eyes and in her smile at Mos-
cow. On the contrary, the fire had either died away,
or was somewhere far away and out of sight.
CHAPTER XXXIV
On leaving Petersburg, Vronsky had installed his
beloved friend and comrade, Petritsky, in his ample
quarters on the Morskaya.
Petritsky was a young lieutenant, not particularly dis-
tinguished, and not only not rich, but over ears in debt.
Every evening he came home tipsy, and he spent much
of his time at the police courts, in search of strange
ANNA KARENINA 147
or amusing or scandalous stories ; but in spite of all
he was a favorite with his comrades and his chiefs.
About eleven o'clock in the morning, when Vronsky
reached his rooms after his journey, he saw at the en-
trance an izvoshchik's carriage, which he knew very
well. From the door, when he rang, he heard men's
laughter and the lisping of a woman's voice, and Petrit-
sky shouting : —
" If it 's any of those villains, don't let 'em in."
Vronsky, not allowing his denshchik to announce his
presence, quietly entered the anteroom. The Baroness
Shilton, a friend of Petritsky's, shining in a lilac satin
robe, and with her little pink face, was making coffee
before a round table, and, like a canary-bird, was filling
the room with her Parisian slang. Petritsky in his
overcoat, and Captain Kamerovsky in full uniform, ap-
parently just from duty, were sitting near her.
" Bravo, Vronsky ! " cried Petritsky, leaping up and
overturning the chair. " The master himself. Baron-
ess, coffee for him from the new coffee-pot ! We did
not expect you. I hope that you are pleased with the
new ornament in your library," he said, pointing to the
baroness. " You are acquainted, are n't you .-* "
" I should think so ! " said Vronsky, smiling gayly,
and squeezing the baroness's dainty little hand. " We 're
old friends."
" Are you back from a journey .-* " asked the baroness.
" Then I 'm off. Akh ! I am going this minute if I am
in the way."
"You are at home wherever you are, baroness," said
Vronsky. " How are you, Kamerovsky?" coolly shak-
ing hands with the captain.
" There now ! you would never think of saying such
lovely things as that," said the baroness to Petritsky.
" No } Why not .-' After dinner I could say better
things ! "
" Yes, after dinner there 's no more merit in them.
Well ! I will make your coffee while you go and wash
your hands and brush off the dust," said the baroness,
again sitting down, and industriously turning the screw
r48 ANNA KARENINA
of the new coffee-pot. " Pierre, bring some more coffee,"
said she to Petritsky, whom she called Pierre, after his
family name, making no concealment of her intimacy
with him. " I will add it."
" You will spoil it."
" No ! I won't spoil it. Well ! and your wife ? " said
the baroness, suddenly interrupting Vronsky's remarks
to his companions. " We have been marrying you off.
Did you bring your wife .? "
" No, baroness. I was born a Bohemian, and I shall
die a Bohemian."
" So much the better, so much the better ; give us
your hand ! "
And the baroness, without letting him go, began to
talk with him, developing her various plans of life, and
asking his advice with many jests.
" He will never be willing to let me have a divorce.
Well! what am I to do .'* [//<? was her husband.] I now
mean to institute a lawsuit. What should you think of
it } .... Kamerovsky, just watch the coffee ! It 's boiling
over You see how well I understand business ! I
mean to begin a lawsuit to get control of my fortune.
Do you understand this nonsense .-' Under the pretext
that I have been unfaithful," said she, in a scornful tone,
" he means to get possession of my estate."
Vronsky listened with amusement to this gay prattle
of the pretty woman, approved of what she said, gave
her half-jesting advice, and assumed the tone he usually
affected with women of her character. In his Peters-
burg world, humanity was divided into two absolutely
distinct categories, — the one of a low order, trivial,
stupid, and above all ridiculous people, who declared
that one husband ought to live with one wedded wife,
that girls should be virtuous, women chaste, men brave,
temperate, and upright, occupied in bringing up their
children decently, in earning their bread, and paying
their debts, and other such absurdities. People of this
kind were old-fashioned and ridiculous.
But there was another and vastly superior class, to
which he and his friends belonged, and in this the chief
ANNA KARENINA 149
requirement was that its members should be elegant,
generous, bold, gay, unblushingly given over to every
passion, and scornful of all the rest.
Only for the first moment was Vronsky bewildered
under the impressions which he had brought back from
Moscow, of an entirely different world. But soon, and
as naturally as one puts on old slippers, he got into the
spirit of his former gay and jovial life.
The coffee was never served; it boiled over, spattered
them all, and wet a costly table-cloth and the baroness's
dress ; but it served the end that was desired, for it
gave rise to many jests and merry peals of laughter.
" Well, now, good-by, for you will never get dressed,
and I shall have on my conscience the worst crime that
a decent man can commit, —that of not taking a bath.
.... So you advise me to put the knife to his throat .-' "
" By all means, and in such a way that your little
hand will come near his lips. He will kiss your little
hand, and all will end to everybody's satisfaction," said
Vronsky.
"This evening at the Theatre Fran^ais," and she took
her departure with her rustling train.
Kamerovsky likewise arose, but Vronsky, without
waiting for him to go, shook hands with him, and went
to his dressing-room. While he was taking his bath,
Petritsky sketched for him in a few lines his situation,
and how it had changed during Vronsky's absence, —
no money at all ; his father declaring that he would not
give him any more, or pay a single debt. One tailor
determined to have him arrested, and a second no less
determined. His colonel insisted that, if these scandals
continued, he should leave the regiment. The baroness
was as annoying to him as a bitter radish, principally
because she was always wanting to squander money ;
" but she is a daisy, a charmer," he assured Vronsky,
" in the strict Oriental style, —your servant Rebecca
kind, you know." He had been having a quarrel with
Berkoshef, and he wanted to send him his seconds, but
he imagined nothing v/ould come of it. As for the rest,
everything was getting along particularly jolly.
I50 ANNA KARENINA
And then, without leaving Vronsky time to realize
the minutiae of his situation, Petritsky began to retail
the news of the day. As he listened to Petritsky's well-
known gossip, in the familiar environment of his quar-
ters where he had lived for three years, Vronsky ex-
perienced the pleasant sensation of his return to his
gay and idle Petersburg life.
" It cannot be ! " he cried, as he turned the faucet of
his wash-stand and let the water stream over his red,
healthy neck; "it cannot be!" he cried, referring to
the report that Laura had taken up with Mileef and
thrown Fertinghof over. "And is he as stupid and
as conceited as ever ?.... Well, and how about Buzulu-
kof ? "
"Akh! Buzulukof! here's a good story, fascinating!"
said Petritsky. "You know his passion, — balls; and
he never misses one at court. At the last one he went
in a new helmet. Have you seen the new helmets ?
Very handsome, .... light. Well, he was standing....
No ; but listen."
" Yes, I am listening," replied Vronsky, rubbing his
face with a towel.
"The grand duchess was just going by on the arm
of some foreign ambassador or other, and unfortunately
for him their conversation turned on the new helmets.
The grand duchess wanted to point out one of the new
helmets, and, seeing our galubchik standing there," —
here Petritsky showed how he stood in his helmet, —
"she begged him to show her his helmet. He did not
budge. What does it mean ? The fellows wink at him,
make signs, scowl at him. ' Give it to her.' .... He does
not stir. He is like a dead man. You can imagine the
scene!.... Now.... as he.... then they attempt to take it
off He won't let it go ! .... At last he himself takes it
off, and hands it to the grand duchess.
" ' Here, this is the new kind,' said the grand duch-
ess. But, as she turned it over, — you can imagine it
— out came, bukh ! pears, bonbons, ....t^o pounds of
bonbons ! .... He had been to market, galubchik ! "
Vronsky burst out laughing ; and long afterwards,
ANNA KARENINA 151
even when speaking of other things, the memory of
the unfortunate helmet caused him to break out into
a good-natured laugh which showed his handsome, regu-
lar teeth.
Having learned all the news, Vronsky donned his uni-
form with the aid of his valet, and went out to report
himself. After he had reported, he determined to go
to his brother's, to Betsy's, and to make a few calls, so
as to secure an entry into the society where he should
be likely to see Madame Karenina ; and in accordance
with the usual custom at Petersburg, he left his rooms,
expecting to return only when it was very late at night.
PART SECOND
CHAPTER I
TOWARD the end of the winter the Shcherbatskys
held a consultation of physicians in order to find out
what was the state of Kitty's health, and what measures
were to be taken to restore her strength ; she was ill,
and the approach of spring only increased her ailment.
The family doctor had ordered cod-liver oil, then iron,
and last of all, nitrate of silver ; but as none of these
remedies did any good, and as he advised them to take
her abroad, it was then resolved to consult a celebrated
specialist.
This celebrated doctor, still a young man, and very
neat in his appearance, insisted on a careful investiga-
tion of the trouble. He with especial satisfaction, as it
seemed, insisted that maidenly modesty is only a relic
of barbarism, and that nothing is more natural than that
a young man should make examination of a girl in un-
dress. He found this natural because he did it every
day, and he was conscious of no impropriety in it, as
far as he could see ; and, therefore, any sense of shame
on the part of the girl he considered not only a relic of
barbarism, but also an insult to himself.
It was necessary to submit, since, notwithstanding the
fact that all the other doctors were taught in the same
school and studied the same books, and notwithstanding
the fact that certain persons declared that this celebrated
doctor was a bad doctor, yet in the princess's house and
in her circle of friends it was admitted somehow that
this celebrated doctor was the only one known who had
the special knowledge, and was the only one who could
save Kitty's life. After a careful examination and a
prolonged thumping on the lungs of the poor sick girl,
152
ANNA KARENINA 153
trembling with mortification, the celebrated physician
carefully washed his hands, and returned to the draw-
ing-room, and gave his report to the prince.
The prince, with a little cough, hstened to what he
had to say, and frowned. He was a man of experience
and brains, was in good health, and he had no faith in
medicine. He was all the more angry at this comedy,
because possibly he alone understood what ailed his
daughter.
*'A regular humbug,"^ thought the old prince, as he
listened to the doctor's loquacity concerning the symp-
toms of his daughter's illness, mentally applying to the
celebrated doctor a term from the vocabulary of hunting.
The doctor, on his part, with difficulty disguised his
disdain, with difficulty stooped to the low level of his
intelligence, for this old gentleman. It seemed to him
scarcely necessary to speak to the old man, since, in his
eyes, the head of the house was the princess. He was
ready to pour out before her all the floods of his elo-
quence. At this mbment she came in with the family
doctor. The prince left the room, so as not to show
too clearly how ridiculous this whole comedy seemed
to him. The princess was troubled, and did not know
what course to take. She felt a little guilty in regard
to Kitty.
" Well ! Doctor, decide on our fate," said the prin-
cess ; "tell me all."
She wanted to say, " Is there any hope ? " but her
lips trembled, and she could not put this question to
him. " Well, doctor ? "
'* In a moment, princess, I shall be at your service,
after I have conferred with my colleague. I shall then
have the honor of giving you my opinion."
" Do you wish to be alone .'' "
•'Just as you please."
The princess sighed, and left the room.
When the doctors were left alone, the family physi-
cian began timidly to express his opinion about her
1 Pustobrekh, empty barker, signifying one who has had no luck, but
comes home with large storiea. • — -Tk.
154 ANNA KARENINA
condition, and gave his reasons for thinking that it was
the beginning of tubercular disease, but ....
The celebrated physician listened, and in the midst of
his diagnosis took out his great gold watch.
"Yes," said he, "but...."
The family physician stopped respectfully.
"You know that we can hardly decide when tubercu-
lar disease first begins. In the present case, apparently
there is as yet no decided lesion. We can only surmise.
And the symptoms are : indigestion, nervousness, and
others. The question, therefore, stands thus : What is
to be done, granting that a tubercular development is to
be feared, in order to superinduce improved alimenta-
tion .? "
" But you know well, in such cases there are always
some moral or spiritual causes," said the family doctor,
with a cunning smile.
"Of course," replied the celebrated doctor, looking
at his watch again. " Excuse me, but do you know
whether the bridge over the Ya'usa is finished yet,
or whether one has to go around .-' Oh, it is finished,
is it .'' Well ! Then I have twenty minutes left. —
We were just saying that the question remains thus :
to improve the digestion, and strengthen the nerves ;
the one is connected with the other, and it is necessary
to act on both halves of the circle."
" But the journey abroad .-* "
" I am opposed to these journeys abroad. I beg you
to follow my reasoning. If tubercular development has
already set in, which we are not yet in a condition to
prove, then a journey abroad would do no good. The
main thing is to discover a means of promoting good
digestion."
And the celebrated doctor began to develop his plan
for a cure by means of Soden water, the principal merits
of which were, in his eyes, their absolutely inoffensive
character.
The family doctor listened with attention and re.
spect.
" But I should urge in favor of a journey abroad the
ANNA KARENINA i>55
change of her habits and dissociation from the con
ditions that serve to recall unhappy thoughts. And
finally, her mother wants her to go."
" Ah, well, in that case let them go, provided always
that those German charlatans do not aggravate her
disease They must follow.... Yes ! let them travel."
And again he looked at his watch.
" It is time for me to go ; " and he started for the
door.
The celebrated doctor explained to the princess that
he wished to see the invalid once more — a sense of
propriety dictated this.
"What! have another examination .'' " cried the prin-
cess, with horror.
" Oh, no ! only a few minor points, princess."
"Then come in, I beg of you."
And the mother ushered the doctor into the drawing-
room where Kitty was. Emaciated and flushed, with a
peculiar gleam in her eyes, the result of the mortifica-
tion she had borne, Kitty was standing in the middle of
the room. When the doctor came in her eyes filled
with tears, and she turned crimson. Her whole illness
and the medical treatment seemed to her such stupid,
even ridiculous nonsense. The medical treatment of her
case seemed to her as absurd as to gather up the frag-
ments of a broken vase. Her heart was broken, and
could it be healed by pills and powders .'' But it was
impossible to wound her mother's feelings, the more be-
cause her mother felt that she had been to blame.
" Will you sit down, princess ? " said the celebrated
doctor.
With a smile he sat down in front of her, felt her
pulse, and with a smile began a series of wearisome
questions. At first she replied to them, then suddenly
arose impatiently.
" Excuse me, doctor ; but, indeed, this all leads to
nothing. This is the third time that you have asked
me the same question."
The celebrated doctor took no offense,
"It is her nervous irritability," he remarked to the
156 ANNA KARENINA
princess when Kitty had gone from the room. " How-
ever, I had finished." ....
And the celebrated doctor explained the young prin-
cess's condition to her mother, treating her as a woman
of remarkable intelligence, and concluded with direc-
tions how to drink those waters which were valueless.
On the question, " Is it best to take her abroad ? " the
doctor pondered deeply, as if he were deciding a diffi-
cult problem. The decision was at last expressed : ' Go,
but put no faith in charlatans, and consult him in every=
thing.'
After the doctor's departure, everybody felt as if
something jolly had happened. The mother, in much
better spirits, rejoined her daughter, and Kitty declared
that she was better already. Often, almost all the time,
of late, she felt obliged to pretend.
" Truly, I am well, viaman, but if you desire it, let us
go," said she ; and in her endeavor to show that she
was interested in the journey, she began to speak of
their preparations.
CHAPTER n
Shortly after the doctor went, Dolly came. She
knew that the consultation was to take place that day ;
and though she was as yet scarcely able to go out, hav-
ing had a little daughter toward the end of the winter,
and although she had many trials and cares of her own,
she left her nursing baby and one of the little girls who
was ailing, and came to learn what Kitty's fate should be.
"Well ! how is it "i " she said, as she came into the
drawing-room with her hat on. " You are all happy !
Then all is well?"
They endeavored to tell her what the doctor had
said ; but it seemed that, although the doctor had
spoken very fluently and lengthily, no one was able to
tell what he had said. The only interesting point was
the decision in regard to the journey abroad.
Dolly sighed involuntarily. Her sister, -her best
ANNA KARENINA 157
', was going away ; and life for her was not joy-
ous. Her relations with Stepan Arkadyevitch since
the reconciliation had become humiliating ; the union
brought about by Anna had not been of long duration,
and the family concord had broken down in the same
place. There was nothing definite, but Stepan Arka-
dyevitch was scarcely ever at home, there was scarcely
ever any money in the house, and suspicions of his
unfaithfulness constantly tormented Dolly, but she kept
driving them away in terror of the unhappiness which
jealousy caused her. The first explosion of jealousy,
having been lived down, could not indeed be experi-
enced again ; and even the discovery of his unfaithful-
ness could not have such an effect on her as it had the
first time. Such a discovery now would only break up the
family, and she preferred to shut her eyes to his decep-
tion, despising him, and above all herself, because of this
weakness. Moreover, the cares of a numerous family
constantly annoyed her ; first the nursing of her baby
was unsatisfactory, then the nurse went off, and now one
of the children was ill.
"And how are the children .-* " asked the princess.
'Akh , maman ! we have so many tribulations. Lili
is ill in bed, and I am afraid it is the scarlatina. I
came out now to see how you were, for there'll be no
getting out for me after this, if it is scarlatina — which
God forbid ! "
The old prince also, after the doctor's departure, came
out from his library, presented his cheek to Dolly, ex-
changed a few words with her, and then turned to his
wife : —
" What decision have you come to } Shall you go ?
Well ! and what are you going to do with me \ "
" I think, Aleksandr, that you had better stay at
home."
" Just as you please."
" Maman, why does n't papa come with us ? " said
Kitty, " It would be gayer for him and for us."
The old prince got up and smoothed Kitty's hair with
his hand ; she raised her head, and with an effort smiled
158 ANNA KARENINA
as she looked at him ; it always seemed to her that he
understood her better than any one else in the family,
though he did not say much. She was the youngest,
and therefore her father's favorite daughter, and it
seemed to her that his love made him clairvoyant.
When she saw his kind blue eyes steadily fixed on her,
it seemed to her that he read her very soul, and saw all
the evil that was working there. She blushed, and bent
toward him, expecting a kiss ; but he only pulled her
hair, saying: —
" These stupid cJdgnons ! one never gets down to
the real daughter, but you caress the hair of departed
females. Well ! Dolinka," turning to his eldest daugh-
ter, " what is that trump of yours doing } "
" Nothing, papa," said Dolly, perceiving that her
father referred to her husband ; " he is always away
from home, and I scarcely ever see him," she could not
refrain from adding, with an ironical smile.
" Has he not gone yet to the country to sell his
wood ?"
" No ; he is always putting it off."
" Truly," said the old prince, " is he taking after me ?
— I hear you," he said in reply to his wife, and sitting
down. "And as for you, Katya," he said, addressing his
youngest daughter, " do you know what you ought to
do ? Sometime, some fine morning, wake up and say,
' There ! I am perfectly well and happy, papa, and we
must go for our early morning walk in the cold,' ha ? "
What her father said seemed very simple, but at his
words Kitty felt confused and disconcerted like a con-
victed criminal. "Yes, he knows all, he understands
all, and these words mean that I ought to overcome my
humiliation, however great it has been."
She could not summon up the courage to reply. She
began to say something, but suddenly burst into tears,
and ran from the room.
"Just like 'your tricks!" said the princess to her
husband, angrily. " You always .... " and she began one
of her tirades.
The prince listened for some time to her reproaches,
ANNA KARENINA 159
and made no reply, but his face kept growing darker
and darker.
"She is so sensitive, poor little thing, so sensitive!
and you don't understand how she suffers at the slight-
est allusion to the cause of her suffering. Akh ! how
mistaken we are in people ! " said the princess.
And by the change in the inflection of her voice,
Dolly and the prince perceived that she had reference
to Vronsky.
" I don't understand why there are not any laws to
punish such vile, such ignoble men."
"Akh! do hear her," said the prince with a frown,
getting up from his chair and evidently anxious to make
his escape, but halting on the threshold : —
" There are laws, matushka ; and if you force me to
this, I will tell you who is to blame in all this trouble.
You, you alone ! There are laws against such young
fops, and there always will be ; and if things had not
been as they ought never to have been, old man that I
am, I should have put that dandy on the fence. Yes,
and now to cure her, you bring in these quacks."
The prince would have had still more to say, but as
soon as the princess heard his tone she immediately
became humble and repentant, as always happened when
important questions came up.
" Alexandre ! Alexandre ! " she murmured, going up
to him, and weeping.
The prince held his peace when he saw her tears.
He went to meet her : —
"Well, let it go, let it go. I know that it is hard for
you also. What is to be done .■* There is no great
harm. God is merciful Thank you!" said he, not
knowing what he said, and replying to the princess's
damp kiss which he felt on his hand. Then the prince
left the room.
As soon as Kitty, weeping, had left the room, Dolly,
with her maternal domestic instinct, perceived that this
was an affair which required a woman's management,
and she was preparing to follow her. She took her hat
and morally tucking up her sleeves, prepared to act
i6o ANNA KARENINA
But when her mother began to attack her father, she
tried to restrain her, as far as her filial respect allowed.
When the prince's outburst occurred, she said nothing ;
she was ashamed for her mother and she felt a deep
affection because of the instant return of his good-
nature ; but when he went out, she determined to do
the chief thing that was necessary — to go to Kitty
and calm her.
" I have long wanted to tell you, tnaman; did you
know that when Levin was here the last time, he in-
tended to offer himself to Kitty .? He told Stiva."
"What is that .-' I do not understand .... "
" Then perhaps Kitty refused him ? .... Did n't she tell
you.?"
" No, she did not say anything to me about either of
them ; she is too proud. But I know that all this comes
from.... "
" Yes ; but think, if she refused Levin. I know
that she would not have done so if it had not been for
the other one.... and then he deceived her so abom-
inably."
It was terrible to the princess to think how blame-
worthy she had been toward her daughter, and she grew
angry.
"Akh! I don't know anything about it. Nowadays
every girl wants to live as she pleases, and not to say
anything to her mother, and so it comes that .... "
*^ Maman^ I am going to see her."
" Go ! I will not prevent you," said her mother.
CHAPTER HI
As she entered Kitty's pretty little rosy boudoir, with
figurines in vieiix saxe, a room as youthful, as rosy, as
gay as Kitty herself had been two months before,
Dolly remembered with what pleasure and interest the
two had decorated it the year before ; how happy and
gay they were then ! She felt a chill at her heart as
she saw her sister sitting on a low chair near the door,
ANNA KARENINA i6i
her motionless eyes fixed on a corner of the carpet.
Kitty glanced up at her sister, but the cold and rather
stern expression of her face underwent no change.
" I am going now, and I may be confined at home,
and it will be impossible for you to see me," said Darya
Aleksandrovna, sitting down near her sister; "I wanted
to have a little talk with you."
" What about ? " asked Kitty, quickly raising her head
in alarm.
" What else than about your sorrow ? "
" I have no sorrow."
"That'll do, Kitty. "Do you really imagine that I
don't know .-' I know everything ; and believe me, this
is such a trifle .... All of us have been through this."
Kitty said nothing, and her face resumed its severe
expression.
" He is not worth the trouble that you have given
yourself because of him," continued Darya Aleksan-
drovna, coming right to the point.
"Yes ! because he jilted me! " murmured Kitty, with
trembling voice. "Don't speak of it, please don't
speak of it ! "
"But who said that to you.^ No one said such a
thing ! I am sure that he was in love with you, — that
he is still in love with you ; but .... "
"Ah! nothing exasperates me so as compassion,"
cried Kitty, in a sudden rage. She turned around in
her chair, flushed scarlet, and moved her belt-buckle
back and forth from one hand to the other, clutching
it in her fingers.
Dolly well knew this habit of her sister when she was
provoked. She knew that she was capable of forgetting
herself, and saying harsh and cruel things in moments
of. petulance, and she tried to calm her; but it was too
late.
" What, what do you wish me to understand } what is
it ? " cried Kitty, talking fast : — "that I was in love with
a man who did not care for me, and that I am dying
of love for him .-' And it is my sister who says this to
me! — my sister who thinks that .... that .... that .... she
VOL. I. — II
i62 ANNA KARENINA
is showing me her sympathy! .... I hate such sympathy
and such hypocrisy ! "
"Kitty, you are unjust."
" Why do you torment me .-' "
" Why, on the contrary .... I saw that you were sad ...."
Kitty in her anger did not heed her.
" I have nothing to break my heart over, and need no
consolation. I am too proud ever to love a man who
does not love me."
" Well ! I do not say .... I say only one thing .... Tell
me the truth," added Darya Aleksandrovna, taking her
hand. "Tell me, did Levin speak to you } "....
At the name of Levin, Kitty lost all control of her-
self ; she sprang up from her chair, threw the buckle on
the floor, and with quick, indignant gestures cried : —
" Why do you speak to me of Levin ? I don't see
why you need to torment me. I have already said, and
I repeat it, that I am proud, and never, never would I do
what you have done, — go back to a man who had been
false to me, who had made love to another woman. I
do not understand this ; you can, but I cannot ! "
As she said these words, she looked at her sister, and
seeing that Dolly bent her head sadly without answering,
she sat down near the door again, and hid her face in
her handkerchief instead of leaving the room as she had
intended to do.
The silence lasted several minutes. Dolly was think-
ing of herself. Her humiliation, of which she was always
conscious, appeared to her more cruel than ever, thus
recalled by her sister. She did not expect such bitter-
ness from her sister, and it made her angry. But sud-
denly she heard the rustling of a dress, a broken sob,
and some one's arms were thrown around her neck.
Kitty was on her knees before her.
" Dolinka, I am so unhappy ! " she murmured in ex-
culpation ; and her pretty face, wet with tears, was hid
in Dolly's skirt.
Those tears were evidently the indispensable lubricant
without which the machinery of mutual communion
between the two sisters could not work. At all events,
ANNA KARENINA 163
after a good cry, they spoke no more on the subject
which interested them both, but even while they were
talking about irrelevant topics they understood each
other. Kitty knew that the cruel words that she had
uttered in her anger, about the husband's unfaithfulness
— the unfaithfulness of Dolly's husband — and her hu-
miliation, struck deep into her poor sister's heart, but
that she forgave her. Dolly, on her side, knew all that
she wanted to know, she was convinced that her suspi-
cions were correct, that the pain Kitty felt, the irremedia-
ble pain, lay in the fact that Levin had offered himself to
her, and that she had refused him, and that Vronsky had
played her false, and that she was ready to love Levin
and to hate Vronsky. Kitty said not a word about this;
she spoke only of the general state of her soul.
" I have no sorrow," she said, regaining her calmness
a little ; " but you cannot imagine how wretched, disgust-
ing, and vulgar everything seems to me — above all my-
self. You cannot imagine what evil thoughts come
into my mind."
"Yes, but what evil thoughts can you have?" asked
Dolly, with a smile.
"The most abominable, the most repulsive. I can-
not describe them to you. It is not melancholy, and it
is not ennui. It is much worse. It is as if all the good
that was in me had disappeared, and only the evil was
left. Now how can that be, I tell you .-• " she asked,
looking in perplexity into her sister's eyes. " Papa
began to say something to me a few minutes ago It
seems to me he thinks that all I need is a husband.
Mamma takes me to the ball. It seems to me that she
takes me there for the sole purpose of getting rid of me,
of getting me married as soon as possible. I know that
it is not true, and yet I cannot drive away these ideas.
So-called marriageable young men are unendurable to
me. It always seems to me that they are taking my
measure. A short time ago, to go anywhere in a ball
gown was a simple delight to me ; I admired myself, I
enjoyed it ; now it is a bore to me, and I feel ill at ease.
Now, what do you think.-*.... The doctor.... well .... "
i64 ANNA KARENINA
Kitty stopped ; she wanted to say further that, since
she had felt this great change in herself, Stepan Arka-
dyevitch had become unendurably distasteful to her,
that she could not see him without the most repulsive
and unbecoming conjectures arising in her mind.
" Indeed, everything takes the most repulsive, dis-
gusting aspect in my sight," she continued. "It is a
disease, — perhaps it will pass away."
" But don't for a moment think,..."
" I cannot help it. I do not feel at ease except with
you and the children."
"What a pity that you can't come home with me
now ! "
" Well, I will go. I have had scarlatina. I will per-
suade maman."
Kitty insisted so eagerly, that she was allowed to go
to her sister's, and throughout the course of the disease,
— which proved to be the scarlatina, — she looked after
the children. The two sisters successfully nursed all
the six children ; but Kitty's health did not improve,
and at Lent the Shcherbatskys went abroad.
CHAPTER IV
The highest Petersburg society is remarkably united.
Every one knows every one else, and every one exchanges
visits. But in this great circle there are subdivisions.
Anna Arkadyevna Karenina had friends and close re-
lations with three different circles. One was the official
circle, to which her husband belonged, composed of his
colleagues and subordinates, bound together, or even
further subdivided, by the most varied, and often the
most capricious, social relations. It was now difficult
for Anna to call back the sentiment of almost religious
respect which at first she felt for all these personages.
Now she knew them all, as one knows people in a pro-
vincial city. She knew what habits and weaknesses
were characteristic of each, and what feet the shoe
pinched. She knew what were their relations among
ANNA KARENINA 165
themselves, and to the official center. She knew how
this one agreed with that and on what grounds, and how
another disagreed with still another, and wherefore.
But this administrative clique, to which her husband
belonged, could never interest her, in spite of the Coun-
tess Lidya Ivanovna's suggestions, and she avoided it.
The second circle in which Anna moved was that
which had helped AlekseY Aleksandrovitch in his career.
The center of this circle was the Countess Lidya Iva-
novna ; it was composed of aged, ugly, charitable, and
devout women, and intelligent, learned, and ambitious
men. One of the clever men who belonged to this cir-
cle had called it the "conscience of Petersburg society."
Karenin was very much devoted to this circle ; and
Anna, who had the faculty of getting along with all peo-
ple, had, during the early days of her life in Petersburg,
made friends in its number. After her return from
Moscow, this set of people seemed to her insupportable ;
it seemed as if she herself, as well as all the rest of
them, were hypocritical, and she felt depressed and ill
at ease in this society. She saw the Countess Lidya as
infrequently as she possibly could.
Finally, the third circle in which Anna had connec-
tions was Society, properly speaking, the fashionable
society of balls, dinner-parties, brilliant toilets — the
society which with one hand lays fast hold of "the court
lest it descend to the level of the demi-monde, which the
members of this circle affect to despise, and yet whose
tastes are not only similar, but the same. The bond
that united her to this society was the Princess Betsy
Tverskaya, the wife of one of her cousins, who enjoyed
an income of a hundred and twenty thousand rubles,
and who had taken a great fancy to Anna as soon as
she came to Petersburg, flattered her, introduced her
among her friends, and made ridicule of the Countess
Lidya's friends.
" When I am old and ugly, I will do the same," said
Betsy ; " but a young and pretty woman like yourself
has as yet no place in such an asylum."
Anna at first had avoided as far as possible the society
i66 ANNA KARENINA
to which the Princess Betsy Tverskaya belonged, as it
called for expenses beyond her means, and in her heart
she preferred the first-mentioned coterie ; but after her
visit to Moscow all this was changed. She neglected her
worthy old friends, and cared to go only into grand soci-
ety. There she met Vronsky, and experienced tumultu-
ous pleasure in these meetings. They met with especial
frequency at the house of Betsy, who was a Vronskaya
before her marriage, and was an own cousin of the count.
Vronsky went everywhere that he was likely to meet
Anna, and, if possible, spoke to her of his love. She
gave him no encouragement ; but every time she met
him, there flamed up in her soul the same sense of ani-
mation which had seized her the moment that they met,
for the first time, on the train at Moscow ; she herself
was conscious that at the sight of him this joy shone in
her eyes, in her smile, but she had not the power to
hide it.
Anna at first sincerely believed that she was angry
because he persisted in following her ; but one evening,
not long after her return from Moscow, when she was
present at a house where she expected to meet him,
and he failed to come, she perceived clearly, by the
pang that went through her heart, that she was deceiv-
ing herself, that this insistence of his not only was not
disagreeable to her but that it formed the ruling passion
of her life,
A famous diva was singing for the second time, and
all the high society of Petersburg was at the theater.
Vronsky, from his seat in the first row saw his cousin
there, and without waiting for the entr'acte, left to visit
her box.
" Why did n't you come to dinner } " she asked ; and
then with a smile she added, so as to be heard only by
him, " I admire this clairvoyance of lovers ; s/te was not
there. But come to my house after the opera."
Vronsky looked at her questioningly. She nodded.
He thanked her with a smile and sat down by her side.
"But how I miss your pleasantries; what have be-
ANNA KARENINA 167
come of them ? " continued the Princess Betsy, who fol-
lowed with keen pleasure the progress of this passion.
" You are in the toils, my dear ! "
" That is all that I ask for," he replied, with his calm,
good-natured smile, " to be in the toils. If I complain,
it is not because I am too little in the toils if the truth
must be told. I am beginning to lose hope."
" What hope could you have ? " asked Betsy, taking
the part of her friend. " Let us have a clear under-
standing." But the fire in her eyes told with sufficient
clearness that she understood as well as he did what his
hope meant.
** None," replied Vronsky, laughing, and showing his
regular white teeth. " Excuse me," he added, taking
the opera-glasses from his cousin's hand, in order to
direct it across her bare shoulder at one of the opposite
boxes. " I fear I am becoming ridiculous."
He knew very well that in Betsy's eyes, and in those
of her world, he ran no risk of being ridiculous ; he
knew very well that in the eyes of such people the role
of an unsuccessful lover of a young girl or an unmarried
woman might be ridiculous ; but not so the role of a
man who pursues a married woman and at any price
makes it his aim to lead her into committing adultery.
This role is something beautiful and majestic and can
never be ridiculous, and therefore Vronsky, as he handed
back the opera-glasses, looked at his cousin with a smile
of pride and joy lurking under his mustache.
" And why did n't you come to dinner .'' " she asked
again, unable to refrain from admiration of him.
"I must tell you; I was busy ....and what about.-* I
will give you one guess out of a hundred — out of a thou-
sand .... you would never hit it. I have been reconciling
a husband with his wife's persecutor. Yes, fact ! "
" What ! and you reconciled them .-* "
" Pretty nearly."
" You must tell me all about it," said Betsy, rising.
"Come during the next entr'acte^
" Impossible ; I am going to the French Theater."
" From Nilsson ? " said Betsy, with horror, though
i68 ANNA KARENINA
she could not have distinguished Niisson from the poor-
est chorus-singer.
" But what can I do ? I have made an appointment
in order to finish my act of peacemaking."
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
saved," said Betsy, remembering that she had heard
somewhere some such quotation. "Well, then, sit down
and tell me all about it."
And she resumed her seat.
CHAPTER V
*' It 's a little improper, but so amusing, that I wanted
awfully to tell you about it," said Vronsky, looking at
her with sparkling eyes. " However, I will not mention
any names."
" But I can guess ? so much the better ! "
•'Listen, then. Two gay young men were dining...."
"Officers of your regiment, of course ...."
" I did not say that they were officers, but simply
young men, who had dined well ...."
"Translated, tipsy ! "
" Possibly. They went to dine with a comrade, in
most excellent spirits. They saw a pretty young woman
passing them in a hired carriage ; she turns around, and,
as it seems to them, nods to them and laughs. Of course
they follow her. They gallop like mad. To their
amazement their beauty stops at the entrance of the
very house where they are going ; she mounts to the
upper floor, and they see nothing but a pair of rosy lips
under a short veil, and a pair of pretty little feet."
"You describe the scene with so much feeling that
you make me believe that you were in the party."
"Why do you accuse me so soon.-" Well! the two
young men climb up to their comrade's room, where
there is to be a farewell dinner, and there they drink,
perhaps, more than is good for them, as is usually the
case at farewell dinners. And at dinner they ask who
lives on the top story of that house. No one knows any-
ANNA KARENINA 169
thing about it ; only their friend's valet, to their ques-
tions, ' Do any mamselles live on the top floor ? ' replies
that there are a good many. After dinner the two
young men go into their friend's library and write a
letter to the unknown. They write a passionate letter,
a declaration ; they themselves carry up the letter, in
order to explain whatever in the letter might not be
perfectly understood."
" But why do you tell me such horrible things }
Well } "
" They ring. A girl comes to the door ; they give
her the letter, telling her they are so desperately in love
that they are ready to die, there at the door. The girl
is in doubt and parleys with them. Suddenly a gentle-
man appears, red as a lobster and with side-whiskers like
sausages, declares that there is no one there except his
wife, and unceremoniously puts them out of the door."
" How did you know that his side-whiskers were like
sausages .-* "
" But now listen. I have just made peace between
them."
" Well ! what came of it .? "
" This is the most interesting part of the affair. The
happy couple prove to be a titular counselor and his
wife. The titular counselor brings a complaint, and I
am obliged to serve as peacemaker. What a peace-
maker ! .... I assure you Talleyrand compared to me
was nobody."
" What were your difficulties .'' "
" Here now ! Listen ! .... We make excuses as in duty
bound, as : * We are desperately sorry,' we said ; ' we beg
you to pardon us for this unfortunate misunderstanding.'
The titular counselor with the sausage-whiskers seemed
to be thawing ; but he felt it necessary to express his
feelings, and as soon as he began to express his feelings
he began to get wrathy, and to say harsh things, and
again I was obliged to bring all my diplomatic talents
into requisition : * I agree that their conduct was repre-
hensible, but please take into consideration that there
was a misunderstanding ; they were young, and had just
t70 ANNA KARENINA
come from a good dinner. You understand ! Now they
are sorry from the bottom of their hearts, and beg you
to forgive them their fault.' The titular counselor soft-
ened still more : ' I agree with you, count, and I am
ready to pardon them ; but you perceive that my wife,
my wife, a virtuous woman, has been exposed to insult,
to persecution, to the impudence of good-for-nothing
young scound.... ' And the impudent, good-for-noth-
ing young fellows being present, I had to exert myself
to calm them down ; again I put my diplomacy to work,
and every time I seem on the point of success my titular
counselor gets wrathy again, and his face gets red, and
his sausages begin to wag up and down, and I find my-
self drowned in the waves of diplomatic subtleties."
•' Akh ! we must tell you all about this," said Betsy to
a lady who at this moment came into her box. " It has
amused me much ! "
" Well, good luck go with you," she added, giving
Vronsky one of her fingers, as she held her fan ; and
then, shrugging her shoulders so as to keep the waist
of her gown from coming up, so that she might be as
naked as possible when she should go to the front of
the box, and sit down in the full blaze of gas and in the
eyes of all.
Vronsky went to the French Theater, where he really
had to meet his regimental commander, who never failed
to be present at a single representation. He wished to
speak with him in regard to his business as peacemaker
which had occupied and amused him for three days.
Petritsky, whom he liked, was involved in this affair, and
the other one was a charming, a glorious fellow, young
Prince Kerdrof, who had lately joined their regiment.
But the principal point was that the affair concerned
the interests of his regiment.
Both the young men belonged to Vronsky's company.
Venden, the titular counselor, had come to the regi-
mental commander with a complaint that the oflficers
had insulted his wife. His young wife — Venden said he
had been married only half a year — had been to church
with her mother, and, feeling indisposed, owing to her
ANNA KARENINA 171
ncate condition, so that she could not stand any longer,
had engaged the first decent izvoshchik at hand. The
officers had chased her; she was frightened and, feeling
still more ill, had run up the stairs. Venden himself,
who had just returned from his office, heard the
sound of a bell and voices. He came out, and, seeing
drunken officers with a letter, he had put them out. He
demanded that they should be severely punished.
" No, it 's all very well to talk," said the regimental
commander to Vronsky, whom he had asked to join
him, " but Petritsky is becoming unbearable. Not a
week passes by without some scandal. This chinovnik
will not stop here, he will go farther."
Vronsky saw all the unpleasantness of this affair, and
he felt that a duel should be avoided, and that every-
thing should be done to make the titular counselor re-
lent and smooth over the scandal. The regimental
commander had summoned him because he knew he
was a shrewd and gentlemanly man, and zealous for the
interests of the regiment. They had talked the matter
over and decided that Vronsky, accompanied by Petrit-
sky and Kerdrof, should go to make their excuses to
the titular counselor. The regimental commander and
Vronsky both realized that Vronsky's name and his
fliigel-adjutant's monogram ought to have a great effect
in soothing the titular counselor. In reality these two
influences proved partially efficacious, but the results
of the reconciliation remained in doubt, as Vronsky
said.
When he reached the French Theater, Vronsky took
the regimental commander into the lobby, and told him
of his success, or rather lack of success. After reflec-
tion the regimental commander decided to leave the
matter in abeyance ; but afterward he began to ques-
tion Vronsky regarding the details of the interview, and
he could not help laughing as he heard Vronsky tell how
the titular counselor kept suddenly flaming out in wrath
as he recalled the particulars of the affair, and how
Vronsky, veering round at the last mention of reconcili-
ation, had withdrawn, pushing Petritsky before him, and
lyi ANNA KARENINA
his repeated attempts to bring him into a suitable frame
of mind.
"It is a wretched piece of business, but comical
enough. Kerdrof cannot fight with this gentleman.
Was he so horribly angry ? " he asked, laughing. " And
how do you like Claire this evening.? — charming !"
said he, referring to a new French actress. " One can't
see her too often ; she is always new. Only the French
can do that ! "
CHAPTER VI
The Princess Betsy left the theater without waiting
for the end of the last act. She had scarcely had more
than time enough, after reaching home, to go into her
dressing-room, and scatter a little rice-powder over her
long, pale face, rearrange her toilet, and order tea to be
served in the large drawing-room, when the carriages
began one after another to arrive at her enormous house
on the Bolshaya Morskaya. The guests came up to the
wide entrance, and a portly Swiss who during the morn-
ing read the newspaper for the edification of passers-by,
as he sat behind the glass door, now kept noiselessly
opening this great door and admitting the visitors.
They came in by one door almost at the same instant
that by another came the mistress of the mansion, with
renewed color, and hair rearranged. The walls of the
great drawing-room were hung with somber draperies,
and on the floor were thick rugs. On the table, which
was covered with a cloth of dazzling whiteness, shining in
the light of numberless candles, stood a silver samovar
and a tea-service of transparent porcelain.
The princess took her place behind the samovar and
drew off her gloves. With the help of attentive servants,
the guests brought up chairs and took their places,
dividing into two camps, the one around the princess,
the other at the opposite end of the drawing-room
around the wife of a foreign ambassador, a handsome
lady, dressed in black velvet, and with black, well-
ANNA KARENINA 173
defined eyebrows. The conversation, as usual at the
beginning of a reception, was desultory, being inter-
rupted by the arrival of newcomers, offers of tea, and
the exchange of salutations, and seemed to be endeavor-
ing to find a common subject of interest.
" She is remarkably handsome for an actress ; you
can see that she has studied Kaulbach," said a diploma-
tist in the group around the ambassador's wife. " Did
you notice how she fell .-' " ....
"Akh ! please let us not speak of Nilsson. Nothing
new can be said about her," said a great fat lady, with
light complexion, without either eyebrows or cJiigiion,
and dressed in an old silk gown. This was the Princess
Miagkaya, famous for her simplicity and frightful man-
ners, and surnamed the Enfant terrible. Princess Miag-
kaya was seated between the two groups, listening to
what was said on both sides of her, and taking impartial
interest in both. "This very day, three people have
made that same remark about Kaulbach. It must be
fashionable. I don't see why that phrase should be so
successful."
The conversation was cut short by this remark, and
a new theme had to be started.
"Tell us something amusing, but don't let it be
naughty," said the ambassador's wife, who was a mis-
tress of the art of conversation called, by the English,
small talk. She was addressing the diplomatist, who
was at a loss what topic to start.
" They say this is very hard, that only naughty things
are amusing," replied the diplomatist, with a smile.
" However, I will do my best. Give me a theme.
Everything depends upon the theme. When you get
that for a background, you can easily fill it in with em-
broidery. I often think that the celebrated talkers of
the past would be exceedingly embarrassed if they were
alive now ; everything intellectual is considered so
dull."....
"That was said long ago," remarked the ambassa-
dor's wife, interrupting him with a smile.
The conversation began amiably, and for the very
174 ANNA KARENINA
reason that it was too amiable, it languished again. It
was necessary to have recourse to an unfailing, never
changing subject — gossip.
"Don't you think that there is something Louis XV.
about Tushkievitch ? " asked he, indicating a handsome,
light-haired young man, who was standing near the
table.
" Oh, yes ! he 's quite in the style of the drawing-
room, and that is why he is here so often."
This subject sustained the conversation, since it
consisted wholly of hints regarding something which
could not be treated openly in that drawing-room, in
other words, Tushkievitch's relations with the Princess
Betsy.
Around the samovar, the conversation hesitated for
some time upon three inevitable subjects, — the news
of the day, the theater, and a lawsuit which was to be
tried the next day. At last the same subject arose that
was occupying the other group — gossip.
"Have you heard that Maltishcheva — that is, the
mother, not the daughter — has had a costume in dia-
ble rose?"
" Is it possible ? No ! That is delicious."
" I am astonished that with her sense, — for she is
certainly not stupid, — she does not perceive how ridic-
ulous she is."
Every one found something in which to criticize and
tear to pieces the unfortunate Madame Maltishcheva ;
and the conversation grew lively, brilliant, and gay,
like a flaming pyre.
The Princess Betsy's husband, a tall, good-natured
man, a passionate collector of engravings, hearing that
his wife had guests, came into the drawing-room before
going to his club, and desired to show himself in her
circle. Noiselessly, on the thick carpet, he approached
the Princess Miagkaya.
" How did you like Nilsson ? " he asked.
" Akh ! Do you steal in upon a body that way >
How you startled me ! " she cried. " Don't speak to
me about the opera, I beg of you ; you don't know any
ANNA KARENINA 175
thing about music. I prefer to descend to your level
and talk with you about your engravings and majolicas.
Well ! What treasures have you discovered lately .'' "
" If you would like, I will show them to you ; but you
are no judge of them."
" Show them to me all the same. I am getting my
education among these — bankers, as you call them.
They have lovely engravings. They like to show
them."
"Have you been at the Schiitzburgs' .''" asked the
mistress of the house, from her place by the samovar.
"Certainly, ma chkre. They invited my husband and
me to dinner, and they told me that the sauce at this
dinner cost a thousand rubles," replied the Princess
Miagkaya, in a loud voice, conscious that all were lis-
tening to her; "and it was a very poor sauce, too, —
something green. I had to return the compliment,
and I got them up a sauce that cost eighty-five kopeks,^
and all were satisfied. I can't make thousand-ruble
sauces ! "
" She is unique," said the hostess.
"Astonishing," said another.
The Princess Miagkaya never failed of making her
speeches effective, and the secret of their effectiveness
lay in the fact that, although she did not always select
suitable occasions, as was the case at the present time,
yet she spoke simply and sensibly. In the society
where she moved, what she said gave the effect of the
most subtle wit. She could not comprehend why it
had such an effect, but she recognized the fact, and
took advantage of it.
While the Princess Miagkaya was speaking, all lis-
tened to her, and the conversation around the ambas-
sador's wife stopped ; so the hostess, wishing to make
the conversation more united, turned to the ambassa-
dor's wife and said : —
" Are you sure that you will not have some tea ?
Then please join us."
" No ; we are very well where we are, in this corner,'
* One ruble, or one hundred kopeks, is worth eighty cents.
176 ANNA KARENINA
replied the ambassador's wife, with a smile, resuming the
thread of a conversation which interested her very deeply.
They were criticizing Karenin and his wife.
" Anna is very much changed since her return from
Moscow. There is something strange about her," said
one of her friends.
"The change is due to the fact that she brought
back in her train the shadow of Aleksei Vronsky," said
the ambassador's wife.
" What is that ? There 's a story in Grimm — a man
without a shadow — a man deprived of his shadow. It
was a punishment for something or other. I cannot see
where the punishment lies, but it must be disagreeable
for a woman to be without her shadow."
" Yes, but the women who have shadows generally
come to some bad end," said Anna's friend.
" Hold your tongues ! " ^ cried the Princess Miagkaya,
as she heard these words. "Madame Karenina is a
charming woman ; I don't like her husband, but I like her."
"Why don't you like her husband.-"' asked the am-
bassador's wife. " He is such a remarkable man. My
husband says there are few statesmen in Europe equal
to him."
" My husband says the same thing, but I don't be-
lieve it," replied the Princess Miagkaya. " If our hus-
bands had not had this idea, we should have seen Alekseif
Aleksandrovitch as he really is ; and, in my opinion, he
is a blockhead, I only say this in a whisper Is it
not true how everything comes out clearly.'* Formerly
when I was told that he was clever I used to try to dis-
cover it, and I came to the conclusion that I was stupid
because I could not see wherein he was clever ; but as
soon as I said to myself, — under my breath, — he is
stupid, all was explained. Is n't that so ? "
" How severe you are to-night ! "
" Not at all, I have no other alternative. One of us
two is stupid. Now you know that one can never say
such a thing of oneself."
1 Tipun vam na yazuik ! A slang expression, meaning literally,
" May your tongue have the pip 1 "
ANNA KARENINA 177
" No one is satisfied with his circumstances, and every
one is satisfied with his brain," said a diplomat, quoting
a French couplet.
" There, that is the very thing," exclaimed the Prin-
cess Miagkay a turning to him, "but I make an exception
of Anna. She is so lovely and good. Is it her fault
if all men fall in love with her and follow her like
shadows .-' "
"Well! I do not allow myself to judge her," said
Anna's friend, justifying herself.
"Because no one follows us like a shadow, it does
not prove that we have the right to judge."
Having thus appropriately disposed of Anna's friend,
the Princess Miagkaya arose, and with the ambassador's
wife drew up to the table, and joined in the general
conversation about some trifle.^
" Whom have you been gossiping about ? " asked
Betsy.
" About the Karenins. The princess has been pictur-
ing Alekser Aleksandrovitch," replied the ambassador's
wife, sitting down near the table, with a smile.
"Shame that we could not have heard it," said Betsy,
looking toward the door. "Ah ! here you are at last,"
said she, turning to Vronsky, who at that moment
came in.
Vronsky knew, and met every day, all the people
whom he found collected in his cousin's drawing-room ;
therefore he came in with the calmness of a man who
rejoins friends from whom he has only just parted.
" Where have I come from .-' " said he, in reply to a
question from the ambassador's wife. " What can I do .-*
I must confess, — from Les Bouffes. 'Tis for the hun-
dredth time, and always with a new pleasure. It is
charming. It is humiliating, I know, but I get sleepy at
the opera ; but at Les Boiiffes I sit it out up to the very
last minute and enjoy it. To-night .... "
He mentioned a French actress, and was going to tell
some story about her, but the ambassador's wife stopped
him with an expression of mock terror.
^ Literally, " about the king of Prussia."
VOL.1. — 12
lyS ANNA KARENINA
" Please don't speak to us of that fright ! "
"Well ! I will not, and the more willingly because you
all know these frights."
" And you would all go there if it were as fashionable
as the opera," added the Princess Miagkaya.
CHAPTER VII
Steps were heard near the door, and the Princess
Betsy, knowing that it was Madame Karenina, looked
at Vronsky. He was looking toward the door, and his face
had a strange, new expression. Joyfully, expectantly,
and almost timidly he gazed at Anna as she entered,
and he rose slowly. Anna came into the drawing-room,
as always holding herself very erect and looking neither
to right nor to left. She crossed the short distance be-
tween her and the hostess, with that rapid, light, but
decided step which distinguished her from all the other
women of this circle. She went directly up to Betsy,
and shook hands with a smile, and with the same smile
she looked at Vronsky, He bowed low and offered her
a chair.
She responded only by bending her head a little, and
blushed, and frowned. But instantly she was nodding
to her acquaintances and shaking hands ; then she
turned to Betsy : —
" I have been at the Countess Lidya's ; I wanted to
get away earlier, but I was detained. Sir John was
there. He is very interesting."
" Oh, that missionary ? "
"Yes; he related many very curious things about
life in India."
The conversation, which Anna's entrance had inter-
rupted, again wavered, like the flame of a lamp in a
draught.
i "Sir John! yes, Sir John! I have seen him. He
speaks well. The Vlasieva is actually in love with
him ! "
ANNA KARENINA 179
* Is it true that the youngest Vlasieva is going to
marry Topof ? "
"Yes ; people say that it is fully decided."
" I am astonished at her parents. They say that it is
a love-match."
" A love-match .■* What antediluvian ideas you have !
Who speaks of love in our days .'' " said the ambassador's
wife.
"What is to be done about it ? That foolish old cus-
tom has not entirely gone out of date," said Vronsky.
" So much the worse for those who adhere to it ; the
only happy marriages that I know about are those of
reason."
"Yes ; but how often it happens that these marriages
of reason break like ropes of sand, precisely because of
this love which you affect to scorn ! " said Vronsky.
" But what we call a marriage of reason is where both
parties take an equal risk. It is like scarlatina, through
which we all must pass."
" In that case it would be wise to find an artificial
means of inoculation for love, as for small-pox."
" When I was young I fell in love with a sacristan ; I
should like to know what good that did me ! " said the
Princess Miagkaya.
" No ; but, jesting aside, I believe that to know what
love really is, one must have been deceived once, and
then been set right," said the Princess Betsy.
" Even after marriage ? " asked the ambassador's wife,
laughing.
" It is never too late to mend," said the diplomatist,
quoting the English proverb.
"But really," interrupted Betsy, "you must be de-
ceived, so as afterwards to get into the right path.
What do you think about this.''" said she, addressing
Anna, who was listening silently to the conversation
with a scarcely perceptible smile on her firm lips.
" I think," said Anna, playing with her glove, which
she had removed, "I think.... if there are as many
opinions as there are heads, then there are as many
ways of loving as there are hearts."
i8o ANNA KARENINA
Vronsky looked at her, and with a violent beating of
the heart waited for her answer ; after she had spoken
those words he drew a deep breath, as if he had escaped
some danger.
She turned suddenly to Vronsky.
" I have just had a letter from Moscow. They write
me that Kitty Shcherbatskaya is very ill."
" Really," said Vronsky, with a frown.
Anna looked at him with a severe expression.
" Does n't that interest you } "
" It certainly does. I am very sorry. Exactly what
did they write you, if I may be permitted to inquire } "
Anna arose and went to Betsy.
" Will you give me a cup of tea ? " she said, standing
behind her chair. While Betsy was pouring the tea,
Vronsky went to Anna.
" What did they write you } "
" I often think that men do not know what nobility
means, though they are all the time talking about it,"
said Anna, not answering his question.
** I have been wanting to tell you for a long time,"
she added, and taking a few steps she sat down at a
corner table laden with albums.
" I don't quite know what your words mean," he said,
offering her a cup of tea.
She glanced at the divan near her, and he instantly
sat down on it.
"Yes, I have been wanting ,Jo tell you," she con-
tinued, without looking at him. "You have acted
badly, — very badly."
"Don't I know that I have? But whose fault was
it?"
"Why do you say that to me?" said she, with a
severe look.
"You know why," he replied boldly and joyously,
meeting her gaze, and without dropping his eyes.
She, not he, felt confused.
"This simply proves that you have no heart," said
she. But her eyes told the story, that she knew that
he had a heart, and that therefore she feared him.
ANNA KARENINA i8i
"What you were talking about just now was error,
not love."
" Remember that I have forbidden you to speak that
word, that hateful word," said Anna, trembling; and
instantly she felt that by the use of that one word
"forbidden," she recognized a certain jurisdiction over
him, and thus encouraged him to speak of love. " For
a long time I have been wanting to say this to you,"
she continued, looking steadily into his eyes, and all
aflame with the color that burned in her face. " I have
come to-night on purpose, knowing that I should find
you here ; I have come to tell you this must come to an
end. I have never had to blush before any one before,
and you somehow cause me to feel guilty in my own
eyes."
He looked at her, and was struck with the new spiri-
tual beauty of her face.
" What do you want me to do .■* " said he, simply and
gravely.
" I want you to go to Moscow, and beg Kitty's
pardon."
" You do not want that," said he.
He saw that she was compelling herself to say one
thing, while she really desired something else.
" If you love me, as you say you do," she murmured,
" then do what will give me peace ! "
Vronsky's face lighted up.
" Don't you know that you are my life ? But I don't
know what peace means, and I can't give it to you.
Myself, my love, I can give — ^yes, I cannot think of you
and of myself separately. For me, you and I are one.
I see no hope of peace for you or for me in the future.
I see the possibility of despair, of misfortune, — unless I
see the possibility of happiness, and what happiness ! ...,
Is it really impossible ? " he murmured, with his lips only,
but she heard him.
She directed all the forces of her mind to say what
she ought ; but, instead of that, she looked at him with
love in her eyes, and said nothing.
" Ah ! " he thought, with rapture, "at the very moment
i82 ANNA KARENINA
when I was in despair, when it seemed I should never
succeed, it has come ! She loves me ! She confesses it."
" Then do this for me, and never speak to me in this
way again ; let us be good friends," said her words : her
eyes told a totally different story.
" We can never be mere friends ; you yourself know
it. Shall we be the most miserable, or the happiest, of
human beings ? It is for you to decide."
She began to speak, but he interrupted her.
"You see I ask only one thing, the right of hoping
and suffering, as I do now ; if it is impossible, order me
to disappear, and I will disappear ; you shall not see me
if my presence is painful to you."
" I do not wish to drive you away."
"Then change nothing; let things go as they are,"
said he, with trembling voice. " Here is your husband ! "
Indeed, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch at that instant was
entering the drawing-room, with his calm face and awk-
ward gait.
Glancing at his wife and Vronsky, he went first to the
hostess, and then he sat down with a cup of tea, and in
his slow and well-modulated voice, in his habitual tone
of persiflage, which seemed always to deride some one
or something, he said, as he glanced around at the
assembly : —
" Your Rarabouillet is complete, — the Graces and
the Muses ! "
But the Princess Betsy could not endure this " sneer-
ing" tone of his, as she called it, — and, like a clever
hostess, quickly brought him round to a serious discus-
sion of the forced conscription. Aleksef Aleksandro-
vitch immediately entered into it, and began gravely to
defend the new ukase against Betsy's attacks.
Vronsky and Anna still sat near their little table.
" That is getting rather pronounced," said a lady, in a
whisper, indicating with her eyes Karenin, Anna, and
Vronsky.
" What did I tell you > " said Anna's friend.
Not only these ladies, but nearly all who were in the
drawing-room, even the Princess Miagkaya and Betsy
ANNA KARENINA 183
herself, glanced more than once at them sitting apart
from the general company, as if it disturbed them.
Only Aleksef Aleksandrovitch never once looked in
their direction, and was not diverted from the interest-
ing conversation on which he had started.
Betsy, perceiving the disagreeable impression that all
felt, substituted some one else in her place to listen to
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, and crossed over to Anna.
" I always admire your husband's clear and explicit lan-
guage," she said. "The most transcendental thoughts
seem within my reach when he speaks."
" Oh, yes ! " said Anna, with a radiant smile of joy,
and not understanding a word that Betsy had said.
Then she went over to the large table, and joined in
the general conversation.
After he had stayed half an hour Aleksef Aleksandro-
vitch spoke to his wife and proposed to her that they
should go home together ; but she answered, without
booking at him, that she wished to remain to supper.
Alekser Aleksandrovitch took leave of the company and
departed.
Madame Karenina's coachman, a portly old Tatar,
in his lacquered leather coat, was having some difficulty
in restraining his left-hand gray, which was excited with
the cold. A lackey stood holding open the carriage
door. The Swiss was standing ready to open the outer
door ; Anna, Arkadyevna was listening with ecstasy to
what Vronsky whispered, while she was freeing, with
nervous fingers, the lace of her sleeve, which had caught
on the hook of her fur cloak.
" You have said nothing, let us admit, and I make no
claim," Vronsky was saying, as he accompanied her
down, " but you know that it is not friendship that I
ask fbr ; for me, the only possible happiness of my life
is contained in that word that you do not like ....
love."
" Love ...." she repeated slowly, as if she had spoken
to herself; then suddenly, as she disentangled her lace,
she said, " I do not like this word, because it means too
i84 ANNA KARENINA
much, far more than you can imagine," and she looked
hirh full in the face. " Da svidanya i " ^
She reached him her hand, and, with a quick elastic
step, passed the Swiss, and disappeared in her carriage.
Her look, her pressure of his hand, filled Vronsky
with passion. He kissed the palm on the place which
she had touched, and went home with the happy convic-
tion that that evening had brought him nearer to the
goal of which he dreamed, than all the two months past.
CHAPTER Vni
AlekseV Aleksandrovitch found nothing unusual
or improper in the fact that his wife and Vronsky had
been sitting by themselves and having a rather lively
talk together ; he noticed that to others in the drawing-
room it seemed unusual and improper, and therefore it
seemed to him also improper. He decided that he
ought to speak about it to his wife.
When he reached home, Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, ac-
cording to his usual custom, went to his library, threw
himself into his arm-chair, and opened his book at the
place marked by a paper-cutter, in an article on Papistry,
and read till the clock struck one, as he usually did.
From time to time he passed his hand across his high
forehead, and shook his head, as if to drive away an im-
portunate thought. At his usual hour he arose and he
prepared to go to bed. Anna Arkadyevna had not yet
returned. With his book under his arm, he went up-
stairs ; but that evening, instead of pursuing his usual
train of reflections and thinking over his governmental
duties, his mind was occupied with his wife and the dis-
agreeable impression which her behavior had caused him.
Contrary to his habit, instead of going to bed he walked
up and down the rooms with his arms behind his Back.
He could not go to bed because he felt that first it was
incumbent on him to ponder anew over the exigency
that had arisen.
1 Da svidanya, like au revoir or aufviieder'sehen, has no equivalent in
English.
ANNA KARENINA 185
When Aleksef Aleksandrovitch made up his mind
that he must have a talk with his wife, it seemed
to him very simple and natural ; but now, as he re-
flected, it occurred to him that the matter was com-
plicated and perplexing.
Aleksei" Aleksandrovitch was not jealous. Jealousy
in his opinion was insulting to a wife, and a husband
should trust in her. But he did not ask himself why
one should trust her, that is to say, why a man should
expect a young wife always to love him.
But he had not felt any lack of confidence simply
because he trusted her, and said to himself that it was
the proper thing to do. But now, although it was his
conviction that jealousy is a disgusting state of mind,
and that it was his duty to trust his wife and that his
faith was still intact, yet he felt that he was placed in
an illogical and ridiculous position, and he knew not
what he ought to do.
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch was now standing face to
face with life, with the possibility that his wife was in
love with some one else besides him, and this seemed
to him very senseless and incomprehensible, because
it was life itself. All his life he had lived and labored
in a round of official duties concerned with the reflec-
tions of life. And whenever he came in contact with
life itself he was revolted by it. Now he experienced
a sensation such as a man feels, who, passing calmly
over a bridge above a precipice, suddenly discovers that
the arch is broken, and that the abyss yawns beneath his
feet.
This abyss was actual life ; the bridge — the artifi-
cial life which he had been living. The idea that his
wife could love another man occurred to him for the
first time, and filled him with terror.
Without undressing, he kept walking back and forth
with regular steps : over the echoing parquetry floor of the
dining-room lighted with a single burner ; over the carpet
of the dark drawing-room, where the light fell on his
recently painted full-length portrait, over the divan ; and
then through his wife's boudoir, where two candles were
i86 ANNA KARENINA
burning, lighting up the portraits of parents and friends,
and the pretty trinkets upon her writing-table, so long
familiar to him. When he reached the door of her bed-
room he turned and went back.
At the end of each turn in his pacing back and forth,
and especially on the hard-wood floor of his brightly
lighted dining-room, he would stop and say to himself: —
" Yes, this must certainly be cut short ; it must be
decided ; I must tell her my way of looking at it ! "
And then he would turn back again.
"But what can I say.? what decision can I make.'"
he would ask himself by the time he reached the draw-
ing-room, and find no answer.
•' But, after all," he would say, as he turned in the
library, "what has been done .-• Nothing. She had a
long talk with him. What of that } But whom does
not a society woman talk with.? To be jealous is de^
grading both her and me," he would say to himself as
he reached her boudoir. But this reasoning, which had
hitherto had such weight, had now lost its cogency.
From the door of her sleeping-room he returned again
to the hall, but, as he crossed fhe dark drawing-room,
he thought he heard a voice saying to him, " It is not
so ! the fact that the others noticed this signifies that
there must be something in it." — And by the time he
reached the dining-room again he was saying, " Yes, the
thing must be decided, and broken short off." And
once more in the drawing-room, just before he turned
about, he would ask himself : —
" How can I decide ? How can I tell her.?"
And then he would ask himself, "What had hap-
pened.?" and reply, "Nothing," and remember that
jealousy is a feeling degrading to a woman ; but again
in the drawing-room he would feel persuaded that some-
thing had happened.
His thoughts, like his steps, followed the same circle,
and he struck no new idea. He recognized this, rubbed
his forehead, and sat down in her boudoir.
There, as he looked at her table, with its malachite
writing-tablet, and a letter unfinished, his thoughts took
ANNA KARENINA tSj
another direction ; he began to think of her, and how
she would feel. His imagination vividly showed him
her personal life, her thoughts, and her desires ; and the
idea that she might, that she must, have her individual
life apart from his, seemed to him so terrible, that he
hastened to put it out of his mind.
This was the abyss which it was so dreadful for him
to gaze into. To penetrate by thought and feeling into
the soul of another was a psychical effort strange to
Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch. He considered it a pernicious
and dangerous mental habit.
"And what is most terrible," he said to himself, "is
that this senseless uncertainty comes on me just as I
am about to bring my work to completion," — he re-
ferred to a scheme which he was at that time managing,
— " and when I need perfect freedom from agitation
and all my mental powers. What is to be done .-* I am
not one of those men who can endure agitation and
annoyance and have the strength of mind to face them."
" I must reflect ; I must take some stand and get rid
of this annoyance," he added aloud. "I do not admit
that I have any right to probe into her feelings, or to
scrutinize what is going on in her heart ; that belongs
to her conscience, and comes into the domain of relig-
ion," he said to himself, feeling some consolation that
he had found a domain of law applicable to the circum-
stances that had arisen.
" So," he continued, " the questions relating to her
feelings and the like are questions of conscience, in
which I have no concern. My duty lies clearly before
me. As head of my family, I am bound to guide her,
and therefore, to a certain degree, I am responsible. I
must point out the danger which I see ; I must watch
over her, and even use my powers. I must speak to her."
And Aleksef Aleksandrovitch formulated in his mind
everything that he should say to his wife. While he
was thinking it over he regretted the necessity of wast-
ing his time and his intellectual powers in family matters.
But, in spite of him, his plan assumed, in his thought,
the clear, precise, and logical form of a report : —
i88 ANNA KARENINA
" I must make her understand as follows : First, The
meaning and importance of public opinion and deco-
rum ; Secondly, The religious significance of marriage ;
Thirdly, if necessary. The unhappiness which it might
cause her son ; Fourthly, The unhappiness which might
befall herself."
And Aleksef Aleksandrovitch twisted his fingers to-
gether, palms down, and made the joints crack.
This gesture, of joining his hands and stretching his
finger-joints, — a bad habit, — calmed him, and conduced
to the precision of which he now stood in such need.
A carriage was heard driving up to the house. Alek-
sef Aleksandrovitch stopped in the middle of the hall.
He heard his wife's step on the stairway. Aleksel
Aleksandrovitch had his sermon all ready ; but still he
stood there, squeezing his crossed fingers and trying to
make the joints crack. One joint cracked.
Even as he heard her light steps on the stairs he was
conscious of her presence, and, though he was satisfied
with his sermon, he dreaded the explanation that was
imminent
CHAPTER IX
Anna entered with bent head, playing with the tas-
sels of her bashluik or Turkish hood. Her face shone
with a bright glow, but this bright glow did not betoken
joy ; it reminded one of the terrible glow of a confla-
gration against a midnight sky. When she saw her
husband, she raised her head and smiled, as if she had
awakened from a dream.
" You are not abed yet } what a miracle ! " she said,
taking off her bashluik ; and, without pausing, she went
into her dressing-room, crying, " It is late, Aleksei
Aleksandrovitch," as she got to the door.
"Anna, I must have a talk with you."
"With me.''" she said, in astonishment, coming out
into the hall, and looking at him. "What is it "i What
about 1 " she asked, and sat down. " Well, let us talk,
ANNA KARENINA 189
then, if it is so necessary ; but I would much rather go
to sleep."
Anna said what came to her tongue, and was aston-
ished to hear herself, astonished at her own facility at
telling a lie. How perfectly natural her words sounded,
and how probable that she wanted to go to sleep ; she
felt herself clad in an impenetrable armor of falsehood.
She felt that some invisible power assisted her and sus-
tained her.
"Anna, I must give you a warning."
" A warning ? " she exclaimed ; " why .? "
She looked at him so innocently, so'gayly, that any
one who did not know her as her husband did would
have noticed nothing unnatural either in the tone of her
voice or in the meaning of what she said. But for him,
who knew her, who knew that when he was five minutes
later than usual she always remarked on it, and asked
the reason, for him who knew that her first impulse was
always to tell him of her pleasures and her sorrows, for
him now to see the fact that Anna took special pains
not to observe his agitation, that she took special pains
not to say a word about herself, all this was very sig-
nificant. He saw that the depths of her soul, hitherto
always opened to his gaze, were now shut away from him.
Moreover, by her tone he perceived that she was not
confused by this ; but as it were she said openly and with-
out dissimulation, " Yes, I am a sealed book, and so it
must be, and will be from henceforth."
He felt as a man would who should come home and
find his house barricaded against him.
" Perhaps the key will yet be found," thought Aleksel
Aleksandrovitch.
" I want to warn you," said he, in a gentle voice,
" lest by your imprudence and your thoughtlessness
you give people cause to talk about you. Your rather
too lively conversation this evening with Count Vronsky "
— he pronounced this name slowly and distinctly —
"attracted attention."
He finished speaking, and looked at Anna's laughing
eyes, now terrible to him because they were so impene-
I90 ANNA KARENINA
trable, and he saw all the idleness and uselessness of
his words.
" You are always like this," she said, as if she had
not understood him, and intentionally had understood
only the last part of what he said. " Sometimes you
don't like it because I am bored, and sometimes you
don't like it because I have a good time. I was not
bored this evening; does that disturb you.-*"
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch trembled ; again he stretched
his fingers till the knuckles cracked.
"Akh! I beg of you, don't crack your fingers, I
detest it so," said she.
"Anna, is this you.''" said Aleksef Aleksandrovitch,
trying to control himself, and stopping the movement
of his hands.
" Yes ! but what is it ? " she asked, with a sincere
and almost comic astonishment. " What do you want
of me } "
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch was silent, and passed his
hand across his brow and over his eyes. He felt that,
instead of having done as he intended, that is, instead
of having warned his wife of her errors in the sight
of the world, he was agitated at what concerned her
conscience, and was perhaps striking some imaginary
wall.
" This is what I wanted to say," he continued,
coldly and calmly, " and I beg you to listen to me until
I have done. As you know, I regard jealousy as an
insulting and degrading sentiment, and I never allow
myself to be led away by it ; but there are certain laws
of propriety which one cannot cross with impunity.
This evening, judging by the impression which you
made, — I am not the only one that noticed it, all did,
— you did not conduct yourself at all in a proper
manner."
" Decidedly I do not understand at all," said Anna,
shrugging her shoulders. " He does not really care,"
she thought; "all that he fears is the opinion of the
world." — " You are not well, Aleksel Aleksandrovitch,"
she added, rising, and starting to go to her room.
ANNA KARENINA 191
But he stepped in front of her as if to prevent her from
going. Never had Anna seen his face so displeased
and ugly ; she remained standing, tipping her head to
one side, while with quick fingers she began to pull out
the hair-pins.
" Well ! I will hear what you have to say," she said,
in a calm, bantering tone ; " I shall even listen with
interest, because I should like to know what it is all
about."
She herself was astonished at the assurance and calm
naturalness with which she spoke, as well as at her
choice of words.
" I have no right to examine your feelings. I think
it is useless and even dangerous," AlekseY Aleksandro-
vitch began. " If we probe too deeply into our hearts,
we run the risk of touching on what we ought not to
perceive. Your feelings concern your conscience. But
in presence of yourself, of me, and of God, I am in
duty bound to remind you of your obligations. Our lives
are united, not by men, but by God. Only by crime
can this bond be broken, and such a crime brings its
own punishment."
" I don't understand at all. Oh, heavens, how sleepy
I am ! " said Anna, swiftly running her hand over her
hair, and taking out the last pin.
" Anna ! in the name of Heaven, don't speak so,"
said he, gently. " Maybe I am mistaken ; but believe
me, what I say to you is as much for your advantage as
for mine ; I am your husband, and I love you."
Anna's face for an instant grew troubled, and the
mocking fire disappeared from her eyes ; but the word
" love " irritated her. " Love ! " she thought ; " does he
know what it means .-' If he had never heard that there
was such a thing as love, he would never have used that
word."
*' Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, truly, I don't know what
you mean," she said. "They say you find...."
" Allow me to finish. I love you, but I am not speak-
ing for myself ; those who are chiefly interested are our
son and yourself. It is quite possible, I repeat, that my
192
ANNA KARENINA
words may seem idle and ill-judged ; possibly they are
the result of mistake on my part. In that case, I beg
you to forgive me ; but if you yourself feel that there
is the least foundation for my remarks, then I earnestly
urge you to reflect, and, if your heart inclines you, to.
confide in me."....
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, without noticing the fact,
had spoken a very different discourse from the one that
he had prepared.
" I have nothing to say." And she added in a
sprightly tone, scarcely hiding a smile, " Truly, it is time
to go to bed."
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch sighed, and, without speak-
ing further, went to their chamber.
When she reached the room, he was already in bed.
His lips were sternly set, and he did not look at her.
Anna got into bed, every moment expecting that he
would speak to her again ; she both feared it and desired
it, but he said nothing.
She waited long without moving, and then forgot all
about him. She was thinking of some one else ; she saw
him and was conscious of her heart throbbing with emo-
tion and with guilty joy. Suddenly she heard a slow
and regular sound of snoring. Aleksei Aleksandrovitch
at first seemed to be startled himself, and stopped ; but
at the end of a second the snoring began again with
monotonous regularity.
" Too late ! too late ! " she whispered, with a smile.
She lay for a long time thus, motionless, with open
eyes, the shining of which it seemed to her she herself
could see in the darkness.
CHAPTER X
From this time began a new life for Alekse'f Aleksan-
drovitch and his wife. Nothing unusual happened.
Anna continued to go into society, and was especially
often at the Princess Betsy's ; and everywhere she met
Vronsky. Alekseif Aleksandrovitch saw it, but was
ANNA KARENINA 193
powerless to prevent it. Whenever he tried to bring
about an explanation, she raised up against him an
impenetrable wall of humorous perplexity.
Outwardly, everything was the same, but their rela-
tions had completely changed. Aleksei Aleksandro-
vitch, a remarkably strong man in matters requiring
statesmanship, here found himself powerless. Like an
ox, submissively lowering its head, he waited the blow
of the ax which he felt was lifted against him. When-
ever he began to think about it, he felt that once more
he must try by gentleness, tenderness, reason, to save
Anna, and bring her back to him. Every day he made
up his mind to speak ; but as soon as he made the
attempt, that evil spirit of falsehood which possessed
her seemed to lay hold of him also, and he spoke not at
all in the tone in which he meant to speak. Involun-
tarily, what he. said was spoken in his tone of raillery,
which seemed to cast ridicule on those who would speak
as he did. And this tone was not at all suitable for the
expression of the thoughts that he wished to express.
CHAPTER XI
What had been for nearly a whole year the sole de-
sire of Vronsky's life, changing all his former desires —
what Anna had looked upon as an impossible, a terrible,
and, therefore, the more a fascinating, dream of bliss, was
at last realized. Pale, with quivering lower jaw, he
stood over her, begging her to be calm, himself not
knowing how or why.
"Anna! Anna!" he said, with trembling voice.
"Anna! for God's sake!"....
But the more intensely he spoke the lower she hung
her once proud, joyous, but now humiliated head, and
she crouched all down, and dropped from the divan,
where she had been sitting, to the floor at his feet.
She would have fallen on the carpet had he not held her.
"My God! forgive me!" she sobbed, pressing his
VOL. I. — 13
194 ANNA KARENINA
hands to her breast. She felt that she was such a sinnef
and criminal that nothing remained for her except to
crouch down and beg for forgiveness ; now there was
nothing else for her in life but him, so that to him alone
she turned her prayer for forgiveness. As she looked
at him she felt her humiliation physically, and she could
say no more.
But he felt exactly as a murderer must feel when he
sees the lifeless body of his victim. This lifeless body
was their love — the first epoch of their love. There
was something horrible and repulsive in the recollection
of the terrible price that they had paid for this shame.
The shame in the presence of their spiritual nakedness
oppressed her and took hold of him. But in spite of all
the horror felt by the murderer in presence of the body
of his victim, he must cut it in pieces, must bury it, must
take advantage of his crime.
And, as with fury and passion the murderer throws
himself on the dead body and drags it and cuts it, so he
covered her face and shoulders with kisses. She held
his hand and did not stir.
" Yes, these kisses were what had been bought with
this shame ! Yes, and this hand, which will always be
mine, is the hand of my accomplice."
She raised his hand and kissed it. He fell on his
knees, and tried to look into her face ; but she hid it
and said nothing. At last, as if trying to control her-
self, she made an effort to rise, and pushed him away.
Her face was still as beautiful as ever ; even so much
the more was it pitiful.
"All is ended," said she; "I have nothing but thee,
remember that."
" I cannot help remembering it, since it is my life. A
moment before this happiness .... "
"What happiness.?" she cried, with contempt and
horror. And horror involuntarily seized him also,
" For God's sake, not a word, not a word more."
She quickly got up and moved away from him, and
with a strange expression of hopeless despair, such as he
had never seen before, on her face, she stood aloof from
ANNA KARENINA 195
him. She felt that at that moment she could not ex-
press in words the sense of shame, rapture, and horror
at this entrance into a new life, and she did not wish to
speak about it or vulgarize the feeling with definite words.
But even afterward, on the next day, on the third
day, not only did she fail to find words in which to
express the complication of these feelings, but she
could not even find thoughts by which to formulate to
herself all that was in her soul.
She said to herself: —
" No, I cannot now think about this ; by and by, when
I am calmer."
But this calmness never came. Every time when the
questions arose: "What had she done.? and what would
become of her.? and what ought she to do.?" she was
filled with horror, and she compelled herself not to think
about them.
"By and by, by and by," she repeated, "when I am
calmer."
On the other hand, during sleep, when she had no
control of her thoughts, her situation appeared in its
ugly nakedness. One dream almost every night haunted
her. She dreamed that she was the wife both of Vron-
sky and of Alekseif Aleksandrovitch, and that both lav-
ished their caresses on her, Aleksef Aleksandrovitch
kissed her hands, and said, weeping, " How happy we are
now ! " Aleksei" Vronsky, also, was there, and he was
her husband. She was amazed that she had ever be-
lieved such a thing impossible ; and she laughed as she
explained to them that this was far simpler, that both
would henceforth be satisfied and happy. But this
dream weighed on her like a nightmare, and she always
awoke in fright.
CHAPTER Xn
Even in the first weeks after Levin returned from
Moscow, every time that with flushed cheeks and a
trembling in his limbs he remembered the shame of hi^
rejection, he would say to himself: —
196 ANNA KARENINA
"I blushed and trembled like this, and I felt that all
was lost, when I got one in physics, and had to go into
the second class ; and I thought myself irretrievably
ruined when I bungled in my sister's affairs, which were
confided to me. And now ? Now the years have gone
by, and I look back and wonder how it could disturb
my mind. It will be just the same with my disap-
pointment this time. Time will pass, and I shall grow
callous."
But three months passed away and the callousness
did not come, and it was as painful for him to remember
it as on the first day. He could not reconcile himself
to the fact that, after dreaming so long of family life,
after being, as he thought, so well prepared for it, not
only was he not married, but found himself farther than
ever from marriage. He felt painfully, as all those
around him felt, that it is not good for a man of his age
to live alone. He remembered that before his departure
for Moscow he had once said to his cowherd, Nikolai, a
simple-hearted muzhik with whom he liked to talk : —
" Do you know, Nikolai, I am thinking of getting
married ? " whereupon Nikolai had instantly replied, as
if there could not be the slightest doubt about it : —
"This ought to have been long ago, Konstantin
Dmitritch."
And now marriage was farther off than ever. The
place was taken ; and when, exercising his imagination,
he put into that place some young girl of his acquain-
tance, he felt that it was perfectly impossible. Moreover,
the recollection of how Kitty refused him and of the
part which he played still tormented him with morti-
fication. It was idle to say that he was not to blame in
this ; this recollection, taken together with other mortify-
ing experiences of the same sort, made him quiver and
grow red in the face. He had on his conscience, as
every man has, the remembrance of evil deeds for which
he should have repented ; but the remembrance of these
evil deeds did not trouble him nearly so much as the
feeling of his humiliation, slight as it really was. It was
a wound that refused to heal. He could not keep out
ANNA KARENINA 197
of his mind his rejection, and the miserable position in
which he must have been placed in the eyes of others.
Time and labor, however, brought their balm ; the
painful impressions little by little began to fade in pres-
ence of the events of the country life, important in
reality, in spite of their apparent insignificance. Each
week his thoughts turned to Kitty v/ith less frequency.
He even began to await with impatience the news that
she was married, or was going to be married, hoping that
this event would bring healing in the same way as the
pulling of a tooth may.
Meantime spring came, beautiful, friendly, without
treachery or false promises, — a spring such as fills
plants and animals, no less than men, with joy. This
splendid season gave Levin new zeal, and confirmed his
resolution to tear himself from the past so as to reorgan-
ize his solitary life on conditions of permanence and
independence. Although many of the plans that he
had formed on his return to the country had not been
put into effect, yet the most essential one — that his life
should be kept pure -7- had been realized. He expe-
rienced none of that sense of shame which ordinarily
tormented him after a fall ; and he could look fearlessly
into men's eyes.
In February he had received a letter from Marya
Nikolayevna, who informed him that his brother's health
was failing, and that he would not use any rcmedi'js.
In consequence of this letter he had immediately gone
to* Moscow, where he persuaded Nikolai to consult a
physician, and then to go abroad for the baths. He
succeeded so well in persuading his brother and in lend-
ing him money for the journey, without exasperating
him, that he felt quite satisfied with himself.
Besides his farm-labors, which especially occupied his
attention that spring, and his ordinary reading, Levin
was deeply engaged in writing a work on rural economy,
which he had begun during the winter. His theory was
that in farming the laborer's temperament is a factor as
important as climate or the soil, and that consequently
ail the deductions of agronomic science are drawn, not
198 ANNA KARENINA
from the premises of soil and climate alone, but from
the soil, the climate, and the certain unchangeable
character of the laborer.
Thus, notwithstanding his loneliness or in conse-
quence of his loneliness, his life, therefore, was very busy
and full ; only occasionally he felt the need of some one
besides Agafya Mikhallovna with whom to communi-
cate the ideas that came into his head. However, he
brought himself to discuss with her about physics, the
theories of rural economy, and, above all, philosophy.
Philosophy was Agafya Mikhailovna's favorite subject.
The spring opened late. During the last weeks of
Lent the weather was clear but cold. During the day
the snow melted in the sun, but at night the mercury
w^ent down to seven degrees ; the crust on the snow was
so thick that carts could go anywhere across the fields.
It snowed on Easter Sunday. Then suddenly, on the
following day, a warm wind blew, the clouds drifted
over, and for three days and three nights a warm and
heavy rain fell ceaselessly. On Thursday the wind went
down, and then over the earth was spread a thick gray
fog, as if to conceal the mysteries that were accomplish-
ing in nature ; under this fog, the fields were covered
with water, the ice was melting and disappearing, the
brooks ran more swiftly, foaming and muddy. Toward
evening the Krasnaya Gorka, or Red Hill, began to show
through the fog, the clouds scattered like snipe, and
spring in reality was there in all her brilliancy.
The next morning the sun rose bright and quickly
melted away the thin sheet of ice that still covered
the ponds, and the warm atmosphere grew moist with
the vapors rising from the earth ; the old grass and the
young blades peeping from the sod, with its tiny needles,
the buds on the snow-ball trees, the currant bushes, and
the sticky sappy birch trees, grew green, swelled, and
on their branches, powdered with golden bloom, swarms
of honey-bees buzzed in the sun. Invisible larks trilled
their songs over the velvet of the green and the prairies
freed from snow ; the lapwings lamented for their hoi-
lows and marshes, submerged by the stormy waters;
ANNA KARENINA 199
the wild swans and geese flew high in the air, with their
calls of spring. The cattle, with rough hair and spots
worn bare, lowed as they went out to pasture ; the
bandy-legged lambs gamboled around the bleating ewes^
soon to lose their wool ; swift-footed children ran bare-
foot over the wet paths, where their footprints were left
like fossils ; the peasant-women gossiped gayly around
the edge of the pond, where they were bleaching their
linen ; and in the yards resounded the axes of the mu-
zhiks, repairing their plows and their wagons.
Spring had really come.
CHAPTER XIII
Levin put on his heavy boots, and, for the first time,
his sleeveless cloth coat instead of his fur shuba, and
went out to look over his estate, tramping through the
brooklets which dazzled his eyes as they glanced in the sun,
and stepping, now on a cake of ice, and now in sticky mud.
Spring is the epoch of plans and projects. Levin, as
he went out into his court, no more definitely knew what
he would first take in hand in his beloved farming than
the tree in early spring knows how and why his young
sprouts and branches grow out from their enveloping
buds ; but he felt that he was going to originate the
most charming projects and the most sensible plans.
He went first to see his cattle. The cows had been
let out into the yard, and with their smooth new coats
of hair glistening as they warmed themselves in the
sun, they were lowing as if to beg permission to go out
to pasture. Levin knew them all, even to the minutest
particulars. He contemplated them with satisfaction,
and gave orders to take them to pasture, and to let the
calves out into the yard. The cow-boy gayly started to
drive them out into the field. The milkmaids, gather-
ing up their petticoats, and splashing through the mud
with bare feet, white as yet, and free from tan, chased
the bellowing calves, silly with the rapture of spring, and
with switches kept them from escaping froni the yard.
400 ANNA KARENINA
Admiring the young cattle which the year had
brought, for they were uncommonly beautiful, — the
oldest already as large as a peasants' cow, and Pava's
daughter, three months old, as big as a yearling, — ■
Levin ordered the trough to be brought out for them,
and their hay to be given them behind gratings.^ He
found, however, that these gratings, which had been
made in the autumn, but were not used during the
winter, were out of repair. He sent for the carpenter,
who was supposed to be busy repairing the threshing-
machine ; but it seemed that the carpenter was not
there. He was repairing the harrows, which should
have been repaired during Lent. This made Levin
very indignant. He was indignant at this everlasting
repetition of such slovenliness, against which he had so
many years struggled with all his might. The gratings,
as he soon learned, not having been in use during the
winter, had been carried to the stable, where, as they
were of light construction, and meant only for calves,
they had been broken.
Moreover, it appeared that nothing had been done to
the harrows and other agricultural implements, which
should have been inspected and put in order during the
winter months, and for this purpose especially he had
hired three carpenters. The harrows were needed im-
mediately for work in the fields. Levin summoned the
overseer,^ then he himself went in search of him.
The overseer, as radiant as everything else was that
day, came from the threshing-floor dressed in a lined
lambskin coat.^ He was twisting a straw between his
fingers.
" Why is n't the carpenter at work on the threshing-
machine .? "
" Oh, yes ; that is what I meant to tell you last even-
ing : the harrows had to be repaired ! We 've got to
plow."
" Yes ; but what have you been doing this winter ? "
"Yes; but why do you hire such a carpenter ?"
1 Reshotki, a sort of portable palisade.
2 Prikashchik. ^ Tulupchik.
ANNA KARENINA 201
** Where are the gratings for the calves ? "
" I ordered them to be put in place. You can't do
anything with such people," replied the overseer, wav-
ing his hands.
" Not such people, but such an overseer ! " said Levin,
getting still more angry. *' Well, what do I keep you
for ? " he shouted ; but, recollecting that shouts did not
do any good, he stopped in the middle of his remark
and only sighed. " Well, can you get the seed in yet .-* "
he asked, after a silence.
" Back of Turkino we might to-morrow, or the day
after."
" And the clover ? "
" I sent Vasili and Mishka to sow it, but I don't know
whether they succeeded ; it 's muddy."
" On how many acres .'' "
" Sixteen acres." ^
" Why not the whole ? " cried Levin.
He was still more indignant because they had sowed
only sixteen acres instead of fifty-four: he knew by his
own experience, as well as by theory, the need of sowing
the clover-seed as early as possible, almost in the snow,
and Levin never could get this done.
"Not enough people. What can you do with these
men .-' The three hired men did not come ; and then
Semyon .... "
"Well, you would better have taken them away from
the straw."
" Yes ; I did that very thing."
" Where are all the people ?"
" There are five at the compote [he meant to say com-
post] ; four are moving the oats, so that they should not
spoil, Konstantin Dmitritch."
Levin knew very well that these words, " So that they
should not spoil,'' meant that his English oats saved for
seed were already ruined. Again they had not done
what he had ordered.
" Yes ! But did I not tell you during Lent to put in
the ventilating-chimneys .'' " he cried.
^ Six desyatins ; a desyatina is 2.7 acres.
202 ANNA KARENINA
" Don't you be troubled ; we will do all in good
time."
Levin angrily waved his hand, and went to examine
his oats in the granary; then he went to the stables.
The grain was not yet spoiled, but the workmen were
stirring it up with shovels when they might have let it
down from one story to the other. After he had
straightened this matter and sent two hands to sow
the clover, Levin calmed down in regard to his over-
seer. It was such a lovely day that one could not keep
angry.
" Ignat," he cried to his coachman, who, with upturned
sleeves, was washing the carriage near the pump, " sad-
dle me a horse,"
"Which one.?"
" Well, Kolpik."
" I will do so."
While he was saddling the horse, Levin again called
the overseer, who was busying himself in his vicinity,
hoping to be restored to favor, and began to speak with
him about the work that he wanted done during the
spring, and about his plans for carrying on the estate.
He wanted the compost spread as soon as possible,
so as to have this work done before the first mowing ;
then he wanted the farthest field plowed, so that it
might be left fallow. All the fields — not half of them
— should be attended to with the laborers.
The overseer listened attentively, doing his best evi-
dently to approve of his master's plans. But never-
theless his face wore that vexatiously hopeless and
melancholy expression which Levin knew so well.
This expression seemed to say, "This is all very well
and good, but as God shall give."
Nothing exasperated Levin so much as this tone, but
it was common to all the overseers that had ever been
in his service. They all received his projects with the
same dejected air ; and so he now refrained from getting
angry, but he was exasperated and felt himself still more
stimulated for the struggle against this, as it were ele-
mental, force which he could not help calling " As God
ANNA KARENINA 203
shall give,'' and which constantly opposed him every-
where.
" If we have time, Konstantin Dmitritch," said the
overseer.
" Why shall we not have time t "
" We absolutely ought to hire fifteen more workmen,
but they can't be had. Some came to-day who asked
seventy rubles for the summer."
Levin did not speak. Again the opposing force !
He knew that, however he might exert himself, he never
could hire more than forty, thirty-seven, or thirty-eight,
laborers at a reasonable price ; he had succeeded in get-
ting forty, never more ; but nevertheless he could not
give up vanquished.
" Send to Suri, to Chefirovka ; if they don't come, we
must go for them."
" I 'm going to go," said Vasili Feodorovitch, gloomily.
"But then the horses are very feeble."
"Buy some more; but then I know," he added, with
a laugh, "that you will do as little and as badly as you
can. However, I warn you that I will not let you do as
you please this year. I shall take the reins in my own
hands."
" Yes ! but even as it is you get too little sleep, it
seems to me. We are very happy to be under our mas-
ter's eyes.... "
" Now, have the clover put in on the Berezof Bottom,
and I shall come myself to inspect it," said he,
mounting his little horse," Kolpik, which the coachman
brought up.
" Don't go across the brooks, Konstantin Dmitritch,"
cried the coachman.
" Well, then, by the woods."
And on his little, lively, easy-going ambler, which
whinnied as it came to the pools, and which pulled on
the bridle, having been too long in the stable. Levin rode
out of the muddy courtyard, and across the open fields.
Happy as Levin had felt in his cow-yard and cattle-
pen, he felt still happier out in the field. Rhythmically
swaying on his easy-going, gentle pony, drinking in the
204 ANNA KARENINA
warm air, freshened by the snow as he rode through the
forest where the snow still lay here and there rapidly
melting in the tracks, he took keen delight in every
one of his trees, with greening moss and swelling buds.
As he came out from the forest, before him lay a vast
stretch of fields ; they seemed like an immense carpet of
velvet where there was not a bare spot or a marsh, only
here and there in the hollows marked with patches of
melting snow. The sight of a peasant's mare and colt
treading down his fields did not anger him, but he
ordered a passing muzhik to drive them out. With the
same gentleness he received the sarcastic and impudent
answer of the muzhik Ipat, whom he met and asked,
" Ipat, shall we put in the seed before very long ? "
And Ipat replied, " We must plow first, Konstantin
Dmitritch."
The farther he went, the more his good-humor in-
creased, and each of his plans for improving his estate
seemed to surpass the other : to protect the fields on
the south by lines of trees so as to prevent the snow
from staying too long ; to divide his arable fields into
nine parts, six of which should be well dressed, and the
other three sown down to grass ; to build a cow-yard in
the farthest corner of one field, and have a pond dug ;
to have portable inclosures for the cattle, so as to util-
ize the manure; and thus to cultivate three hundred
desyatins of wheat, a hundred desyatins of potatoes, and
one hundred and fifty of clover, without exhausting the
soil.
Full of these reflections, he picked his way carefully
along so as not to tread down his fields, till at last he
reached the place where the laborers were sowing the
clover. The cart, loaded with seed, instead of being left
on the edge of the field, had been driven into the
plowed land, and his winter wheat was crushed by
the wheels and trampled down by the horse. The two
laborers were sitting by the edge of the field, evidently
smoking a mutual pipe. The earth in the cart, mixed
together with the seed, had not been worked over, but
was full of har4 or frozen lumps.
ANNA KARENINA 205
When he saw the master, the laborer Vasili started
toward the cart, and Mishka began to sow. This was
all wrong, but Levin rarely got angry with his laborers.
When Vasili came up to him, Levin ordered him to lead
the horse to the side of the field.
" It won't do any harm, sir ; it will spring up
again."
" Please not discuss it," replied Levin, " but do what
I say."
" I will obey," said Vasili, taking the horse by the
head. "What splendid seed, Konstantin Dmitritch,"
he added, to regain favor. " Best kind ! But it is
frightful going ! You drag 2i pud on each, foot."
" But why was n't the earth sifted ? " asked Levin.
" Oh ! it '11 come out all right," replied Vasili, taking
up some seed, and crushing the lump in his palm.
It was not Vasili's fault that they were scattering the
unsifted soil ; but it was vexatious, nevertheless. Hav-
ing more than once to his advantage made use of a
well-known means of wreaking his vexation, which
always seemed to him foolish. Levin now determined to
try it and see if he could recover his good temper. He
noticed how Mishka strode along dragging huge clods
of clay which stuck to each of his feet ; so, dismounting,
he took the seed-cod from Vasili and began to scatter
the seed.
" Where did you stop ? "
Vasili touched the spot with his foot, and Levin went
on as best he could, scattering the earth with the seed.
But it was as hard as wading through a marsh, and after
he had gone a row he stopped all in a sweat, and returned
the seed-cod.
"Well, barin, if that row doesn't come out well next
summer, don't blame me for it ! " said Vasili.
"Indeed I won't," replied Levin, gayly, already feel-
ing the efficacy of the means he had employed.
" But just look at the summer we 're gomg to have !
'T will be magnificent ! If you '11 notice, that 's where I
sowed last spring. How well I planted it I Why, Kon-
stantin Dmitritch, I work as if I were working for my
2o6 ANNA KARENINA
own father ! Well, I don't like to do slack work. What
is good for the master is good for us. And look yon-
der at that field," continued Vasili, pointing to the field,
"it delights my heart."
"It is a fine spring, Vasili."
" Yes ! it is such a spring as our old men can't re-
member. I was at home, and our elder has already
sowed an acre ^ of wheat ; as he says he can hardly tell
it from rye."
" But how long have you been sowing wheat ? "
"Why, you yourself taught us how to sow it year be-
fore last. You spared me two measures. It gave eight
bushels and w.e sowed an acre with it."
" Well ! look here, see that you break up the earth
well!" said Levin, as he started for his ambler, "look
after Mishka ; and if the seed comes up well, you shall
have fifty kopeks a desyatin."
" We thank you humbly : we should be content even
without that."
Levin mounted his horse, and rode off to visit his
last year's clover-field, and then to the field which was
already plowed ready for the summer wheat.
The crop of clover in the stubble-field was miraculous.
It had all survived, and was covering with a mantle of
green all the ground where the preceding fall the roots
of the wheat had been left.
The horse sank up to the fetlock, and each foot made
a sucking noise as he pulled it out of the half-thawed
soil. It was entirely impossible to cross the plowed
land. Only where there was ice would it hold, but in
the thawed furrows the horse's leg sank above the fet-
lock. The plowed field was excellent. In two days
the harrowing and sowing could be done. Everything
was beautiful, everything was gay !
Levin rode back by way of the brooks, hoping to find
the water lower; in fact, he found that he could get
* Tri ostninnika ; in the government of Tula an osminnik iS an eighth of
a desyatin. One chetvert (about eight bushels) plants three of these eighths,
or an acre. Levin promises an equivalent of about forty cents for 2.7
acres.
ANNA KARENINA 207
across ; and, as he waded through, he scared up a couple
of wild ducks.
"There ought to be snipe, also," he thought; and a
forest guard whom he met on his way to the house
confirmed his supposition.
He immediately spurred up his horse, so as to get
back in time for dinner, and to prepare his gun for
the evening.
CHAPTER XIV
Just as Levin reached home, in the best humor in
the world, he heard the jingling of bells at the side
entrance.
"There, now! some one from the railroad station,"
was his first thought ; "it 's time for the Moscow train.
— Who can have come.-' brother Nikolai'.'' Did he not
say that instead of going abroad he might perhaps
come to see me ? "
For a moment it occurred to him disagreeably that
his brother Nikolai's presence might spoil his pleasant
plans for the spring ; but, disgusted at the selfishness
of this thought, his mind, so to speak, instantly received
his brother with open arms, and he began to hope, with
affectionate joy, that it was really he.
He hurried his horse, and as he came out from behind
the acacia, he saw a hired troika from the railway station
and a traveler dressed in a shuba.
It was not his brother.
" Akh ! if only it is some agreeable man to talk with,"
he thought.
" Ah ! " he cried, lifting up both arms as he recog-
nized Stepan Arkadyevitch, " here is the most delecta-
ble of guests ! Akh ! how glad I am to see you ! —
I shall certainly learn from him if she is married or
when she's going to be," he added to himself.
This splendid spring morning he felt that the memory
of Kitty was not at all painful.
" You scarcely expected me, I suppose," said Stepan
2o8 ANNA KARENINA
Arkadyevitch, leaping out of the sledge, with spots ot
mud on the bridge of his nose, on his cheeks, and on
his forehead, but radiant with health and pleasure. " I
am come, first, to see you," he cried, throwing his arms
around Levin and kissing him ; " secondly, to shoot a few
birds ; and thirdly, to sell the forest at Yergushovo."
" Perfect, is n't it ? What do you think of this spring?
But how could you have got here in a sledge ? "
" Traveling is far worse with a telyega, Konstantin
Dmitritch," replied the postilion, who was an acquain-
tance.
" Well ! Indeed, I am delighted to see you again,"
said Levin, with a genuine smile of boyish joy.
He conducted his guest to the room kept in readi-
ness for visitors, and had Stepan Arkadyevitch's things
brought up, — a gripsack, a gun in its case, and a box
of cigars, and then, leaving him to wash and dress him-
self, he went down to his office to speak about the clover
and the plowing.
Agafya Mikhaiiovna, who had very much at heart the
honor of the mansion, met him in the vestibule with
questions about dinner,
"Do just as you please," replied Levin, as he went
out ; "only make haste about it," said he, and went to
the overseer.
When he returned, Stepan Arkadyevitch, who had
washed, and combed his hair, was just coming out of
his room with a radiant smile, and together they went
up-stairs.
" Well, I am very happy to have got out to your
house at last. I shall now learn the mystery of your
existence here. Truly, I envy you. What a house !
How convenient everything is ! how bright and delight-
ful! " said Stepan Arkadyevitch, forgetting that bright
days and the springtime were not always there. "And
your old nurse, — what a charming old soul ! All that 's
lacking is a pretty little chambermaid with an apron on,
— but that does not suit your severe and monastic style ;
but this is very good."
Stepan Arkadyevitch had much interesting news to
ANNA KARENINA 209
tell : especially interesting to Levin was the tidings that
his brother Sergye'i Ivanovitch expected to come into
the country this summer ; but not one word did Stepan
Arkadyevitch say about Kitty or any of the Shcherbat-
skys, he simply transmitted his wife's greeting. Levin
was grateful to him for this delicacy. As usual, he
had stored up during his hours of solitude a throng of
ideas and impressions which he could not share with
any of his domestics, and now he poured into Oblon-
sky's ears his poetical spring joys, his failures and plans
and farming projects, his thoughts and his observations
on the books which he had read, and above all the idea
of his treatise, the scheme of which consisted — though
he himself had not noticed it — of a critique on all for-
mer works on farming.
Stepan Arkadyevitch, amiable, and always ready to
grasp a point, showed unusual cordiality ; and Levin
even thought that he noticed a certain flattering con-
sideration and an undertone of tenderness in his treat-
ment of him.
The efforts of Agafya Mikhailovna and the cook to
get up an especially good dinner resulted in the two
friends, who were half starved, betaking themselves to
the zakuska, or lunch-table, and devouring bread and
butter, cold chicken and salted mushrooms, and finally
in Levin calling for the soup without the little pasties
which the cook had made in the hope of surprising the
guest.
But Stepan Arkadyevitch, though he was used to dif-
ferent kinds of dinners, found everything excellent, the
travnik, or herb-beer, the bread, the butter, and especially
the cold chicken, the mushrooms, the sJicJii, or cabbage-
soup, the fowl with white sauce, and the white Krimean
wine, — everything was admirable, wonderful !
"Perfect ! perfect ! " he cried, as he Jit a big cigarette
after the roast. " I feel as if I had escaped the shocks
and noise of a ship, and had landed on a peaceful shore.
And so you say that the element represented by the
working-man ought to be studied above all others, and
be taken as a guide in the choice of economy expe-
VOL. 1. — 14
2IO ANNA KARENINA
dients. You see I am a profanus in these questions,
but it seems to me that this theory and its applications
would have an influence on the working-man...."
"Yes; but hold on. I am not speaking of political
economy, but of rural economy considered as a science.
You must study the premises, the phenomena, just the
same as in the natural sciences ; and the working-man,
from the economical and ethnographical point of view ...."
But here Agafya Mikhailovna entered with the des-
sert of preserves.
" Well, now ! accept my compliments, Agafya Mi-
khaVlovna," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, kissing the ends
of his hairy fingers. " What nice baked chicken !
What delicious beer ! — Well, Kostia, is n't it time to
go .■• " he added.
Levin looked out of the window toward the sun,
which was sinking behind the tree-tops, still bare and
leafless.
" It is time. Kuzma, have the horses hitched up,"
he cried, as he went down-stairs.
Stepan Arkadyevitch followed him, and carefully re-
moved the canvas covering from the lacquered case, and,
having opened it, proceeded to take out his costly gun,
which was of the newest pattern.
Kuzma, already scenting a generous fee, gave him
assiduous attention, and helped him put on his stock-
ings and his hunting-boots ; and Stepan Arkadyevitch
accepted his aid complacently.
"If the merchant Rabinin comes while we are gone,
Kostia, — I told him to be here to-day, — do me the favor
to have him kept till we get back." ....
" Are you going to sell your wood to Rabinin .'' "
"Yes. Why, do you know him .'' "
"Oh! certainly I know him. I have done business
with him, 'positively and finally.' "
Stepan Arkadyevitch burst into a laugh. " Posi-
tively and finally " were the favorite words of the mer-
chant.
"Yes; he is very droll in his speech! — She knows
where her master is going," he added, patting Laska,
ANNA KARENINA 211
who was jumping and barking around Levin, licking
now his hand, now his boots and gun.
A dolgusha, or hunting-wagon, was waiting at the
steps as they came out.
" I had the horses put in, although we have but a
little distance to go," said Levin ; " but would you rather
walk.?"
"No, I prefer to ride," replied Stepan Arkadyevitch,
as he mounted the wagon. He sat down, tucking round
his legs a striped plaid, and lighted a cigar. "How
can you get along without smoking, Kostia .-' A cigar
....it is not only a pleasure, it is the very crown and
sign of delight. This is life indeed. How delightful !
I should like to live like this ! "
" What 's to prevent .-' " asked Levin, with a smile.
"Yes; but you are a fortunate man, for you have
everything that you like. You like horses, you have
them ; dogs, you have them ; hunting, here it is ; an
estate, here it is ! "
"Perhaps it is because I enjoy what I have, and
don't covet what I have not," replied Levin, with Kitty
in his mind.
Stepan Arkadyevitch understood, and looked at him
without speaking.
Levin was grateful to Oblonsky because he avoided
speaking about the Shcherbatskys, with his usual tact
perceiving that Levin dreaded to speak about them ;
but now he felt anxious to find out how matters stood,
but he did not dare to inquire.
" Well, how go your affairs } " asked Levin, realizing
how selfish it was in him to think only of himself.
Oblonsky's eyes glistened with gayety.
"You will not admit that one can want hot rolls when
he has his monthly rations ; in your eyes it is a crime :
but for me, I cannot admit the possibility of living with-
out love," he replied, construing Levin's question in his
own fashion. " What 's to be done about it .-' I am so
constituted. And it is a fact, it does so little. harm to
any one else, and gives one so much pleasure...."
"What! there is a new one, is there?" asked Levin.
212 ANNA KARENINA
" There is, brother ! You know the type of the
women in Ossian ?.... these women that you see in
dreams ? .... But they really exist, and are terrible.
Woman, you see, is an inexhaustible theme ; you can
never cease studying her, — she always presents some
new phase."
" So much the better not to study her, then."
" Not at all. Some mathematician has said that hap-
piness consisted in searching for truth and never find-
ing it."
Levin listened, and said no more ; and, notwithstanding
all the efforts which he made, he could not in the least
enter into his friend's soul, and understand his feelings
and the charm of studying such women.
CHAPTER XV
The place where the birds collected was not far
away, by a small stream, flowing through an aspen
grove. Levin got out and took Oblonsky to a nook in
a mossy, somewhat marshy meadow, where the snow
had already melted. He himself went to the opposite
side, near a double birch, rested his gun on the fork of
a dead branch, took off his kaftan, clasped a belt about
his waist, and insured the free motion of his arms.
Old gray Laska, following him step by step, sat down
cautiously in front of him, and pricked up her ears.
The sun was setting behind the great forest, and against
the bright sky the young birches and aspens stood out
distinctly, with their bending branches and their swell-
ing buds.
In the forest, where the snow still lay, the low rip-
pling sound of waters could be heard running in their
narrow channels ; little birds were chirping, and flying
from tree to tree. In the intervals of perfect silence
one could hear the rustling of the last year's leaves,
moved by the thawing earth or the pushing herbs.
" Why, one really can hear and see the grass grow ! "
said Levin to himself, as he saw a moist and slate-col-
ANNA KARENINA 213
ored aspen leaf raised by the blade of a young herb start-
ing from the sod.
He stood, listening and looking, now at the damp
moss-covered ground, now at the watchful Laska, now
at the bare tree-tops of the forest, which swept like a sea to
the foot of the hill, and now at the darkening sky, where
floated Httle white bits of cloud. A hawk flew aloft,
slowly flapping his broad wings above the distant forest ;
another took the same direction and disappeared. In
the thicket the birds were chirping louder and more
gayly than ever. Not far away, an owl lifted his voice,
and Laska pricked up her ears again, took two or three
cautious steps, and bent her head to listen. On the
other side of the stream a cuckoo sang. Twice it uttered
its customary cry, and then its voice grew hoarse, it
flew away, and was heard no more.
" Why, the cuckoo has come ! " said Stepan Arka-
dyevitch, coming out from behind his thicket.
" Yes, I hear," said Levin, disgusted that the silence
of the forest was broken, by the sound even of his own
voice. "You won't have to wait long now."
Stepan Arkadyevitch returned to his place behind his
thicket, and Levin saw only the flash of a match and
the red glow of his cigarette and a light bluish smoke.
Tchik ! tchik ! Stepan Arkadyevitch cocked his gun.
" What was that making that noise } " he asked of
his companion, attracting his attention to a protracted
humming as if a colt was neighing with a very slender
voice.
" Don't you know what that is .<* That is the buck
rabbit. Don't speak any more. Listen, there is a
bird ! " cried Levin, cocking his gun.
A slender distant whistle was heard, with that rhyth-
mic regularity which the huntsman knows so well ; then
a moment or two later it was repeated nearer, and sud-
denly changed into a hoarse little cry.
Levin turned his eyes to the right, to the left, and
finally saw, just above his head, against the fading blue
of the sky, above the gently waving aspens, a bird fly-
ing. It flew straight toward him ; its cry, like the noise
ar4 ANNA KARENINA
made by tearing stiff cloth, rang in his ears ; then he
distinguished the long bill and the long neck of the
bird, but hardly had he caught sight of it when a red
flash shone out from behind Oblonsky's bush. The
bird darted off like an arrow and rose into the air again ;
but again the light flashed and a report was heard, and
the bird, vainly striving to rise, flapped its wings for a
second, and fell heavily to the wet earth.
" Did I miss ? " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, who
could see nothing through the smoke.
" Here she is," cried Levin, pointing to Laska, who,
with one ear erect, and waving the tip end of her hairy
tail, slowly, as if to lengthen out the pleasure, came back
with the bird in her mouth, seeming almost to smile as
she laid the game down at her master's feet.
" Well now, I am glad you succeeded," said Levin,
though he felt a slight sensation of envy, because he
himself had not killed this snipe.
"The right barrel missed, curse it ! " replied Stepan
Arkadyevitch, reloading his gun. '* S/t /....Here's an-
other...."
In fact, the whistles came thicker and thicker, rapid
and sharp. Two snipe flew over the hunters, playing,
chasing each other, and only whistling, not clucking.
Four shots rang out ; and the snipe, making a sudden
turn like swallows, disappeared from sight.
The sport was excellent. Stepan Arkadyevitch killed
two others, and Levin also two, one of which was lost.
It grew darker and darker. Venus, with silvery light,
shone out low in the west from behind the birches ;
and high in the east, Arcturus gleamed, with his somber,
reddish fire. Above his head. Levin found and lost the
stars of the Great Bear. The snipe had now ceased to
fly, but Levin resolved to wait until Venus, which was
visible above the birch trees, should stand clear above
the lower branches, and till all the stars of the Great
Bear should be entirely visible. The star had passed
beyond the birch trees, and the wain of the Bear with
ANNA KARENINA 215
its pole was shining out clear in the dark blue sky, and
he was still waiting.
" Is n't it getting late ? " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch.
All was calm in the forest ; not a bird moved.
" Let us wait a little longer," replied Levin.
"Just as you please."
At this moment they were not fifteen paces apart.
" Stiva," cried Levin, suddenly, "you have not told
me whether your sister-in-law is married yet, or whether
she is to be married soon."
He felt so calm, his mind was so thoroughly made
up, that nothing, he thought, could move him. But
what Stepan Arkadyevitch answered was wholly un-
expected.
" She is not married, and she is not thinking of
marriage. She is very ill, and the doctors have sent
her abroad. They even fear for her life."
"What did you say .^ " cried Levin. "Very ill?
What is the matter .-' How did she.... "
While they were talking thus, Laska, with ears erect,
was gazing at the sky above her head, and looking at
them reproachfully.
"This is not the time to talk," thought Laska. "Ah !
Here comes one — there he goes; they will miss him."
At the same instant a sharp whistle pierced the ears
of the two huntsmen, and both, leveling their guns,
shot at once ; the two reports, the two flashes, were
simultaneous. The snipe, flying high, folded his wings,
drew up his delicate legs, and fell into the thicket.
"Excellent! both together!" cried Levin, running
with Laska in search of the game. " Oh, yes ! What
was it that hurt me so just now.? Ah, yes ! Kitty is
ill," he remembered. " What is to be done about it .-•
It is too bad. — Ah ! she has found it ! Good dog," said
he, taking the bird, still warm, from Laska's mouth, and
putting it into his overflowing game-bag.
" Come on, Stiva I " he cried.
2i6 ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER XVI
On their way home, Levin questioned his friend about
Kitty's illness and the plans of the Shcherbatskys.
Though it caused some conscientious scruples, what he
heard was pleasant news to him. It was pleasant because
it left him with some grounds for hope, and it was still
more pleasant to think that she who had caused him so
much suffering, was suffering herself. But when Stepan
Arkadyevitch began to speak of the reason of Kitty's
illness, and pronounced the name of Vronsky, he inter-
rupted him.
" I have no right to know these family matters, since
I am not concerned."
Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled imperceptibly as he
noticed the sudden and characteristic change in Levin,
who, in an instant, had passed from gayety to sadness.
" Have you succeeded in your transaction with Rabinin
about the wood ? " he asked.
"Yes, I have made the bargain. He gives me an
excellent price, — thirty-eight thousand rubles, eight in
advance, and the rest in six years. I had been long
about it ; no one offered me any more."
"That means you are selling your wood for a song,"
said Levin, frowning.
"Why so.?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a good-
humored smile, knowing that now Levin would totally
disapprove of everything.
" Because your wood is worth at least five hundred
rubles a desyatin."
"Oh ! You rural economists ! " replied Stepan Arka-
dyevitch, banteringly. "What a tone of scorn to us,
your city brother ! .... And yet, when it comes to busi-
ness matters, we come out of it better than you do.
Believe me, I have made a careful calculation. The
wood is sold under very favorable conditions ; and I
fear only one thing, and that is lest the merchant will
back out of it ! You see, it is wretched wood," he went
on, accenting the word wretched, so as to convince
ANNA KARENINA 217
Levin of the unfairness of his criticism, "and nothing
but fire-wood. There will not be much more than thirty
cords to the acre,^ and he pays me at the rate of two
hundred rubles."
Levin smiled scornfully.
'• I know these city people," he thought, " who, com-
ing twice in ten years into the country, and learning
two or three country words, which they use appropri-
ately or inappropriately, are firmly persuaded that they
know it all. ' Wretched ! only thirty cords ! ' he speaks
words without knowing what he is talking about."
" I do not pretend to teach you what you write in
your office," said he, "and, if I needed, I would even
ask your advice. But you are so sure that you under-
stand this whole document about the wood. It is hard.
Have you counted the trees .-* "
" What } Count my trees .? " asked Stepan Arkadye-
vitch, with a laugh, and still trying to get his friend out
of his ill-humor. " Count the sands, the rays of the
planets — though a lofty genius might .... "
"Well, now! I tell you the lofty genius of Rabinin
may ! Never does a merchant purchase without count-
ing,— unless, indeed, the wood is given away for noth-
ing as you have done. I know your forest, I go hunting
there every year ; and your forest is worth five hundred
rubles a desyatin cash down ; and he has given you only
two hundred, and on a long term. That means you make
him a present of thirty thousand."
" Well, enough of imaginary receipts," said Stepan
Arkadyevitch, plaintively. " Why did n't some one offer
me this price } "
" Because the merchants connive together. I have
had to do with all of them ; I know them. They are
not merchants, but speculators. None of them is satis-
fied with a profit less than ten or fifteen percent. They
wait till they can buy for twenty kopeks what is worth a
ruble."
"Well, enough ; you are out of sorts."
' Thirty sazhens to the desyatin. A desyatin is 2.7 acre. A cubic
tazhen is 2.68 cords.
2i8 ANNA KARENINA
" Not at all," said Levin, sadly, as they were approach
ing the house.
A small cart, tightly bound with iron and leather, drawn
by a fat horse, tightly harnessed with wide straps, was
standing at the entrance ; in the cart sat a red-faced
overseer tightly belted, who served Rabinin as a coach-
man. Rabinin himself was already in the house, and
met the two friends in the vestibule. Rabinin was a
man of middle age, tall and thin, wearing a mustache,
but his prominent chin was well shaven. His eyes were
protuberant and muddy. He was clad in a dark blue
coat with buttons set low behind, and he wore high
boots, wrinkled around the ankles and smooth over the
calves, and over his boots huge galoshes. Wiping his
face with his handkerchief, and wrapping his over-
coat closely around him, though without that it fitted
him well enough, he came out with a smile, to meet
the gentlemen as they entered. He gave one hand
to Stepan Arkadyevitch as if he wanted to grasp some-
thing.
"Ah! Here you are," said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
shaking hands. "Very good."
" I should not have ventured to disobey your excel-
lency's orders, though the roads are very bad. Posi-
tively, I came all the way on foot, but I got here on time.
A greeting to you, Konstantin Dmitritch," said he,
turning to Levin, intending to seize his hand also ;
but Levin, frowning, affected not to notice the motion,
and began to take out the snipe.
"You have been enjoying a hunt .^ What kind of a
bird is that ? " asked Rabinin, looking at the snipe dis-
dainfully. "I suppose it has a peculiar flavor." And
he shook his head disapprovingly, as if he felt doubtful
whether the game were worth the candle.
"Would you like to go into the library.^" said Levin,
darkly scowling, addressing Stepan Arkadyevitch in
French. " Go to the library, and discuss your business
there."
"Just as you please," replied the merchant, in a tone
of disdainful superiority, apparently wishing it to be
ANNA KARENINA 219
understood that others might find difficulties in trans-
acting business, but that he never could.
As he entered the library, Rabinin glanced about as
if his eyes were in search of the holy image ; but when
he caught sight of it, he did not cross himself. He
glanced at the bookcases and the shelves lined with
books, and with the same air of doubt that the snipe had
caused, he smiled scornfully and shook his head disap-
provingly, as if this kind of game also were not worth
the candle.
" Well, did you bring the money ? " asked Stepan
Arkadyevitch. " Sit down."
" The money will come all in good time, but I came
to see you and have a talk."
" What have we to talk about ? However, sit
down."
" May as well sit down," said Rabinin, taking a chair,
and leaning back in it in the most uncomfortable atti-
tude. "You must give in a trifle, prince; it would be
sinful not to do it. As to the money, it is all ready,
absolutely and finally even to the last kopek ; as far as
the money goes, there will be no delay."
Levin, who had been putting his gun away in the
armory, and was just leaving the room, stopped as he
heard the last words.
" You bought the wood for a song," said he. " He
came to visit me too late ; I would have got a good price
for it."
Rabinin arose and smilingly contemplated Levin from
head to foot, but said nothing.
" Konstantin Levin is very sharp," said he, at length,
turning to Stepan Arkadyevitch. " One never succeeds
in arranging a bargain finally with him. I have bought
wheat, and paid good prices."
" Why should I give you my property for a song ? I
did not find it in the ground, nor did I steal it."
" Excuse me ; at the present day it is absolutely im-
possible to be a thief, everything is done, in the present
day, honestly and openly. Who could steal, then .-' We
have spoken honestly and honorably. The wood is too
220 ANNA KARENINA
dear ; I shall not make the two ends meet. I beg him
to yield a little."
" But is your bargain made, or is it not ? If it is
made, there is no need of haggling; if it is not," said
Levin, " I am going to buy the wood."
The smile suddenly disappeared from Rabinin's lips.
A rapacious and cruel expression, like that of a bird of
prey, came in its place. With his bony fingers he tore
open his overcoat, bringing into sight his shirt, his waist-
coat with its copper buttons, and his watch-chain ; and
from his breast-pocket he pulled out a huge, well-worn
wallet.
" Excuse me, the wood is mine," he exclaimed, making a
rapid sign of the cross, and he extended his hand. " Take
your money, the wood is mine. This is how Rabinin
ends his transactions. He does not reckon his kopeks,"
said he, knitting his brows and waving his wallet eagerly.
" If I were in your place, I should not be in haste,"
said Levin.
" Mercy on me ! " said Oblonsky, astonished, " I hav^e
given my word."
Levin dashed out of the room, slamming the door.
Rabinin glanced at the door and shook his head.
" Merely the effect of youth ; definitely, pure child-
ishness. Believe me, I buy this, so to speak, for the
sake of glory, so that they may say, * It 's Rabinin, and
not some one else, who has bought Oblonsky's forest.'
And God knows how I shall come out of it ! Have faith
in God ! Please sign." ....
An hour later the merchant, carefully wrapping his
khalat around him and buttoning up his overcoat, took
his seat in his cart and drove home, with the agreement
in his pocket.
" Oh ! these gentlemen ! " he said to his overseer,
"always the same story."
" So it is," replied the prikashchik, giving up the reins,
so as to arrange the leather boot. " And your little pur-
chase, Mikhail Ignatyitch?"
"Well! well!"
ANNA KARENINA 221
CHAPTER XVII
Stepan Arkadyevitch went up-stairs, his pockets
bulging out with " promises to pay," due in three months,
which the merchant had given him. The sale of the
forest was concluded ; he had money in his pocket ;
sport had been good ; and Stepan Arkadyevitch was in
the happiest frame of mind, and therefore was especially
eager to dispel the sadness which had taken possession
of Levin. He wanted a good ending for the day that
since dinner had shown such promise.
In point of fact, Levin was not in good spirits, and
in spite of his desire to seem amiable and thoughtful
toward his beloved guest, he could not control himself.
The intoxication which he felt in learning that Kitty
was not married had begun little by little to affect him.
Kitty not married, and ill — ill from love for a man
who had jilted her. It was almost like a personal in-
sult. Vronsky had slighted her, and she had slighted
him. Levin, consequently, had gained the right to de-
spise him. He was therefore his enemy. Levin did
not reason this all out. He had a vague sense that
there was something in this humiliating to him, and he
was angry now because it had upset his plans, and so
everything which came up annoyed him. The stupid
sale of the forest, which had taken place under his roof,
and the way Oblonsky had been cheated, exasperated him.
" Well, is it finished ? " he asked, as he met Stepan
Arkadyevitch up-stairs. " Would you like some sup-
per .? "
"Yes, I won't refuse. What an appetite I feel in
the country ! It 's wonderful ! Why did n't you offer a
bite to Rabinin .? "
"Ah! the devil take him!"
" Why ! how you treated him ! " exclaimed Oblonsky.
"You didn't even offer him your hand! Why didn't
you offer him your hand .-' "
" Because I don't shake hands with my lackey, and
my lackey is worth a hundred of him."
222 ANNA KARENINA
" What a retrograde you are ! And how about the
fusion of classes ? " said Oblonsky.
" Let those who like it, enjoy it ! It is disgusting
to me."
" You, I see, are a retrograde."
" To tell the truth, I never asked myself what I am.
I am Konstantin Levin — nothing more."
"And Konstantin Levin in a very bad humor," said
Stepan Arkadyevitch, smiling.
" Yes, I am in bad humor, and do you know why .■*
Because .... excuse me .... because of your stupid barg.... "
Stepan Arkadyevitch frowned good-naturedly, like a
man who is unreasonably scolded and blamed.
"There! that'll do!" he said. "After any one has
sold anything, they come saying, *You might have sold
this at a higher price ; ' but no one thinks of offering
this fine price before the sale No; I see you have
a grudge against this unfortunate Rabinin."
" Maybe I have. And do you know why ? You will
call me retrograde or some worse name, but it is so
vexatious and disgusting to me to see what is going
on everywhere — the nobility which I belong to, and
in spite of your fusion of classes, am very glad to be-
long to, always getting poorer and poorer And this
growing poverty is not in consequence of luxurious
living. That would be nothing. To live like lords is
proper for the nobles ; the nobles only can do this.
Now the muzhiks are buying up our lands ; that does not
trouble me ; the proprietor does nothing, the muzhik
is industrious, and supplants the lazy man. So it ought
to be. And I am very glad for the muzhik. But what
vexes me, and stirs my soul, is to see the proprietor
robbed by.... I don't know how to express it.... by his
own innocence. Here is a Polish leaseholder, who has
bought, at half price, a superb estate of a lady who
lives at Nice. Yonder is a merchant who has hired a
farm for a ruble an acre, and it is worth ten rubles an
acre. And this very day, without the slightest reason,
you have given this rascal a present of thirty thousand."
" But what can I do ? Count my trees one by one ? "
ANNA KARENINA 223
" Certainly ; if you have not counted them, Rabinin
did, and his children will have the means whereby to
live and get an education, whereas yours, perhaps, will
not."
" Well, forgive me, but there is something pitiful in
such minute calculations. We have our ways of doing
things, and they have theirs ; and let them get the
profits. There now ! Moreover, it is done, and that 's
the end of it And here is my favorite omelette com-
ing in ; and then Agafya Mikhailovna will certainly give
us a glass of her marvelous herb-beer." ....
Stepan Arkadyevitch sat down at the table and be-
gan to joke with Agafya Mikhailovna, assuring her that
he had not eaten such a dinner and such a supper for
an age.
" You can give fine speeches, at least," said Agafya
Mikhailovna. " But Konstantin Dmitritch, whatever
was set before him, if only a crust of bread, would eat
it and go away."
Levin, in spite of his efforts to control himself, was
melancholy and gloomy. He wanted to ask Stepan
Arkadyevitch one question, but he could not make up
his mind, nor could he find either the opportunity in
which to ask it, or a suitable form in which to couch it.
Stepan Arkadyevitch had gone down to his room,
and, after another bath, had put on a ruffled night-shirt
and gone to bed. Levin still dallied in his room, talking
about various trifles, but not having the courage to ask
what he had at heart.
"How wonderfully well this is made!" said he, tak-
ing from its wrapper a piece of perfumed soap, which
Agafya Mikhailovna had prepared for the guest, but
which Oblonsky had not used. "Just look; isn't it
truly a work of art ?"
" Yes ; all sorts of improvements nowadays," said
Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a beatific yawn. "The
theaters, for example, and — a — a — a" — yawning again
— "these amusing a-a-a .... and electric lights every-
where a-a-a-a-a.... "
" Yes, the electric lights," repeated Levin. " And
224 ANNA KARENINA
that Vronsky, where is he now ? " he suddenly asked,
putting down the soap.
"Vronsky?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, ceasing to
yawn, " He is at Petersburg. He went away shortly
after you did, and has not been in Moscow since. And
do you know, Kostia," he continued, leaning his elbow
on a little take placed near the head of the bed, and
resting his handsome ruddy face on his hand, while two
oily, good-natured, and sleepy eyes shone out like twin
stars, " I am going to tell you the truth. You yourself
were to blame. You were afraid of a rival. And I will
remind you of what I said : I don't know which of you
had the best chances. Why didn't you go ahead,? I
told you then that...."
He yawned again, with his jaws only, trying not to
open his mouth.
"Does he, or does n't he, know that I offered myself .-• "
thought Levin, looking at him. " Yes ! there is some-
thing subtle, something diplomatic, in his face ; " and,
feeling that he was flushing, he said nothing, but looked
straight into Oblonsky's eyes.
" If on her part there was any feeling for him, it was
merely a slight drawing," continued Oblonsky. " You
know, that absolutely high breeding of his and the
chances of position in the world had an effect on her
mother, but not on her."
Levin frowned. The humiliation of his rejection,
with which he was suffering as from a recent wound,
smarted in his heart. Fortunately, he was at home ;
and the very walls of the home sustain one.
** Wait ! wait ! " he interrupted ; " you said, ' high
breeding ' ! ^ But let me ask you, what means this high
breeding of Vronsky, or any one else — a high breeding
that could look down on me. You consider Vronsky an
aristocrat. I don't, A man whose father sprang from
nothing, by means of intrigue, whose mother has had
liaisons with God knows whom .... Oh, no, excuse me !
Aristocrats, in my opinion, are men like myself, who
can show in the past three or four generations of excel-
^ Aristokratism.
ANNA KARENINA 225
lent families, belonging to the most cultivated classes,
— talents and intellect are another matter, — who never
abased themselves before anybody, and vi'erc never de-
pendent on others, — like my father and grandfather.
And I know many such. It seems small business to
you that I count my trees, while you give thirty thou-
sand rubles to Rabinin : but you receive a salary, and
other things ; and I receive nothing of the sort, and
therefore I appreciate what my father left me, and what
my labor gives me We are the aristocrats, and not
those who live only by means of what the powers of
this world dole out to them, and who can be bought for
a copper."
" There ! whom are you so angry with ? I agree with
you," replied Stepan Arkadyevitch, sincerely and gayly,
though he knew that when Levin hurled his sarcasms
at those who could be bought for a copper, he meant
him. But Levin's animation really pleased him.
" Whom are you angry with .-' Though much of what
you say about Vronsky is not true, still I won't speak
about that. I will tell you frankly that if I were in
your place, I would start for Moscow, and .... "
" No ! I don't know whether you know or not, —
but it 's over for me. I will tell you. I proposed and
was rejected ; so that now the memory of Katerina
Aleksandrovna is painful and humiliating."
" Why so ? What nonsense ! "
" But let us not speak of it. Forgive me if I have
been rude to you," said Levin. Now that he had made
a clean breast of it, he began once more to feel as he
had felt in the morning. " You will not be angry with
me, Stiva .•* I beg of you, don't be angry with me,"
said he, and with a smile he took his hand.
" Of course not. I will not think anything more
about it. I am very glad, though, that we have spoken
frankly to each other. And, do you know, sport will
be capital to-morrow. We can try it again, can't we .■'
In that case I would not even sleep, but go straight
from the grove to the station."
" Capital ! "
VOL. I. — 15
226 ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER XVIII
Although Vronsky's inner life was wholly absorbed
by his passion, his outward life unchangeably and inevi-
tably ran along on the former ordinary rails of his social
and regimental ties and interests. His regiment filled
an important part in his life, in the first place because
he loved his regiment, and, still more, because he was
extremely popular in it. In his regiment he was not
only admired, but he was also respected. They were
proud of him, proud that a man enormously rich, with
a fine education and with qualities, with a path open
before him to every kind of success and ambition and
glorification, scorned all that, and placed the interests of
his regiment and his comrades above all the interests of
life. Vronksy recognized the feeling which he inspired,
and, besides the fact that he loved that life, he felt called
on, in a certain degree, to sustain his character.
Of course he spoke to no one of his passion. Never
did an imprudent word escape him, even when he joined
his comrades in the liveliest of drinking-bouts, — how-
ever, he was never so intoxicated as to lose control over
himself, — and he kept his mouth shut in the presence
of those gossiping meddlers who made the least allusion
to the affairs of his heart. Nevertheless, his passion
was a matter of notoriety throughout the city ; all had
more or less well-founded suspicions of his relationship
to Madame Karenin, and most of the young men envied
him on account of the very thing that was the greatest
drawback to his love, — Karenin's high station, which
made the matter more conspicuous.
The majority of young women, jealous of Anna,
whom they were weary of hearing always called the just,
were not sorry to have their predictions verified, and
were waiting only for the sanction of public opinion, to
overwhelm her with the whole weight of their scorn ;
they had already prepared for use the mud which should
be thrown at her when the time should come. Most
people of experience, and those of high rank, were dis-
ANNA KARENINA 227
pleased at the prospect of a disgraceful scandal in
society.
Vronsky's mother, when she heard of the liaison, at
first was glad ; because, in her opinion, nothing gave
the last finish to a brilliant young man compared to an
intrigue in high life ; and because she was not sorry to
find that this Madame Karenin, who had pleased her so
much and who seemed so entirely devoted to her boy,
was, after all, only like any other handsome and elegant
woman. But later she learned that her son had refused
an important promotion, for no other reason than that
he might stay with his regiment and keep on visiting
Madame Karenin, and she learned that, on account of
this, persons very high in authority were dissatisfied
with him, and she changed her opinion in regard to it.
There was another reason why she did not now ap-
prove of it : from all she could learn of this liaison, it
was not the brilliant and fashionable flirtation, such as
she approved, but a desperate tragedy, after the style of
Werther, according to report, and she was afraid lest
her son should be drawn into some folly. Since his un-
expected departure from Moscow she had not seen him,
but she sent word to him, through his elder brother, that
she desired him to come to her. His elder brother was
even more dissatisfied, not because he felt anxious to
know whether this love-affair was to be deep or epheme-
ral, passionate or Platonic, innocent or guilty, — he
himself, though a married man and the father of a
family, had a ballet dancer for a mistress, and therefore
had no right to be severe, — but because he knew that
this love-affair was displeasing in quarters where it was
better to be on good terms ; and therefore he blamed
his brother's conduct.
Vronsky, besides his society relations and his military
duties, had yet another absorbing passion, — horses.
The officers' handicap races were to take place this
summer. He became a subscriber, and bought a pure-
blood English trotter; and in spite of his love-affair, he
was passionately though discreetly interested in the
results of the races
228 ANNA KARENINA
These two passions did not interfere with each other.
On the contrary, he needed something independent of
his love-affair, some occupation and interest in which
he could find refreshment and recreation after the over-
violent emotions which stirred him.
CHAPTER XIX
On the day of the Krasno-Sielo races, Vronsky came
earlier than usual to eat a beefsteak in the officers' com-
mon dining-hall. He was not at all constrained to limit
himself, since his weight satisfied the i6o pounds ^ re-
quired ; but he did not want to get fat, and so he
refrained from sweet and farinaceous foods. He sat
down with his coat unbuttoned over his white waistcoat,
and with both elbows resting on the table; while he was
waiting for his beefsteak he kept his eyes on the pages
of a French novel which lay on the plate. He looked
at his book only so as not to talk with the officers as
they went and came, but he was thinking.
He was thinking how Anna had promised to meet
him after the races. But he had not seen her for three
days ; and he was wondering if she would be able to
keep her appointment, as her husband had just returned
to Petersburg from a journey abroad, and* he was won-
dering how he could find out. They had met for the
last time at his cousin Betsy's datcha, or country-house.
For he went to the Karenins' datcha as little as possi-
ble, and now he wanted to go there, and he was asking
himself, " How can it be managed } "
" Of course, I will say that I am charged by Betsy to
find whether she expects to attend the races, — yes,
certainly, I will go," he said, raising his head from his
book. And his face shone with the joy caused by his
imagination of the forthcoming interview.
" Send word that I wish my carriage and troika har-
nessed and brought round," said he to the waiter who
^ Four and a half pud : a /Wis 36. 1 1 pounds avoirdupois.
ANNA KARENINA 229
was bringing his beefsteak on a hot silver platter.
Moving the platter toward him, he began his meal.
In the adjoining billiard-room the clicking of balls
was heard, and two voices talking and laughing. Two
officers appeared in the door : one of them was a young
man with delicate, refined features, who had just gradu-
ated from the Corps of Pages and joined the regiment ;
the other was old and fat, with little, moist eyes, and
wore a bracelet on his wrist.
Vronsky glanced at them and frowned, and went on
eating and reading at the same time, as if he had not
seen them.
" Getting ready for work, are you ? " asked the fat
ofificer, sitting down near him.
"You see I am," replied Vronsky, wiping his lips,
and frowning again, without looking up.
"But aren't you afraid of getting fat.-*" continued
the elderly officer, pulling up a chair for his junior.
" What ! " cried Vronsky, making a grimace to express
his disgust and aversion, and showing his splendid teeth.
" Are n't you afraid of getting fat .'' "
"Waiter, sherry!" cried Vronsky, without replying,
and he changed his book to the other side of his plate,
and continued to read.
The fat officer took the wine-list, and passed it over
to the young officer.
" You select what we '11 have to drink," said he, giv-
ing him the list and looking at him.
" Rhine wine, if you please," replied the young officer,
looking timidly at Vronsky out of the corner of his eye
and trying to twist his imaginary mustache.
When he saw that Vronsky did not turn, the young
officer got up and said, " Let us go into the billiard-
room."
The fat officer humbly arose, and the two went out of
the door.
At the same time a tall, stately cavalry captain, named
Yashvin, came in. He condescendingly and disdain-
fully nodded to the two officers, and went toward
Vronsky.
230 ANNA KARENINA
"Ah ! here he is," he cried, laying his heavy hand on
Vronsky's shoulder. Vronsky turned round angrily,
but in an instant a pleasant, friendly expression came
into his face.
" Well, Alyosha ! " said the cavalry captain, in his big
baritone. " Have something more to eat, and drink
one more glass with me."
" No ; I don't want anything more to eat."
"Those are inseparables," said Yashvin, looking
derisively at the two officers as they disappeared.
Then he sat down, doubling up under the chair, which
was too short for him, his long legs dressed in tight
uniform trousers. " Why were n't you at the Krasmen-
sky theater last evening ? Numerova was not bad at
all. Where were you .-* "
"I stayed too late at the TverskoYs'," said Vronsky.
" Ah ! " exclaimed Yashvin.
Yashvin, a gambler, a debauchee, was Vronsky's best
friend in the regiment. It could not be said of him
that he lacked principles. He had principles, but they
were immoral ones. Vronsky liked him, both for his
exceptional physical vigor, which allowed him to drink
like a hogshead and not feel it, and to do absolutely
without sleep if it were necessary, and also for his great
social ability, which he employed in his relations to his
superiors, and his comrades, attracting to himself their
love and respect ; and also in gambling, at which he
risked tens of thousands, and always, no matter how
much he had been drinking, played so cleverly and
daringly that he was regarded as the leading gambler
at the English Club.
Vronsky felt friendship and consideration for him,
because he felt that Yashvin liked him, not for his for-
tune or his social position, but chiefly on his own account.
Moreover, Yashvin was the only man to whom Vronsky
would have been willing to speak of his love. He felt
that, in spite of his affected scorn for all kinds of senti-
ment, he alone could appreciate the serious passion
which now absorbed his whole life. Besides, he was
persuaded that he found absolutely no pleasure in
ANNA KARENINA 231
tittle-tattle and scandal, but considered this feeling as
essential, in other words, that he knew and believed
that love was no joke, no mere pastime, but something
serious and important. Thus, taken all in all, his pres-
ence was always agreeable to him.
Vronsky had not yet spoken to him about his love,
but he knew that Yashvin knew it — looked on it in its
true light ; and it was a pleasure to read this in his eyes.
" Ah, yes ! " said the cavalry captain, when he heard
the name of the Tverskois ; and, flashing his brilliant
black eyes at him, he seized his left mustache and began
to cram it into his mouth, for this was a bad habit of
his.
" And what did you do last evening .? Did you gain .■* "
asked Vronsky.
" Eight thousand rubles, but three thousand possibly
are no good — I may not get them."
" Well ! Then you may lose on me," said Vronsky,
laughing ; Yashvin had laid a large wager on him.
"But I shall not lose. Makhotin is the only one to
be afraid of."
And the conversation went off in regard to the races,
which was the only subject of which Vronsky could now
think.
" Come on, I have done," said Vronsky, getting up
and going to the door. Yashvin also arose, and stretched
his huge legs and long back.
" I can't dine so early, but I will take something to
drink. I will follow you immediately. Here, wine!"
he cried, in his heavy voice, which was the wonder of
the regiment ; it made the windows rattle.' " No, no
matter! " he cried again ; "if you are going home, I '11
join you."
And he went off with Vronsky
23a ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER XX
Vronsky was lodging in a neat and spacious Finnish
izba, divided in two by a partition. Petritsky was his
chum, not only in Petersburg, but here also in camp.
He was asleep when Vronsky and Yashvin entered.
"Get up! you've slept long enough," said Yashvin,
going behind the partition, and shaking the sleeper's
shoulder, as he lay with his nose buried in the pillow.
Petritsky suddenly got up on his knees, and looked
all about him.
"Your brother has been here," said he to Vronsky.
" He woke me up, the devil take him ! and he said that
he would come again."
Then he threw himself back on the pillow again, and
pulled up the bedclothes.
"Stop! Yashvin," he cried angrily, as his comrade
twitched off his quilt. Then he turned over, opened his
eyes, and said, " You would do much better to tell me
what I ought to drink to take this bad taste out of my
mouth."
"Vodka is better than anything," said Yashvin.
"Tereshchenko ! Bring the barin some vodka and
cucumbers," he cried, delighting in the thunder of his
voict^. • " ■
" You advise vodka ? ha ! " exclaimed Petritsky, scowl-
ing, and rubbing his eyes. "Will you take some, too.?
If you '11 join, all right ! Vronsky, will you have a
drink .■• " said Petritsky, getting up and wrapping a
striped quilt around him under his arms. He came to
the door of the partition, raised his arms in the air, and
began to sing in French, "'There was a king in Thu-
u-le.' — Vronsky, will you have a drink.?"
" Go away," replied the latter, who was putting on
an overcoat brought him by his valet.
" Where are you going .? " asked Yashvin, seeing a
carriage drawn by three horses. "Here's the troika."
"To the stables, then to Briansky's to see about
some horses," replied Vronsky.
ANNA KARENINA 233
Vronsky had, indeed, promised to bring some money
to Briansky, who lived about ten versts from Peterhof ;
and he was in a hurry to get there as soon as possible
so as to pay for the horses, but his friends immediately
understood that he was also going somewhere else.
Petritsky, who kept on singing, winked, and pursed
his lips as if he would say, " We know who this Brian-
sky means."
" See here, don't be late," said Yashvin ; and, chang-
ing the subject, "And my roan, does she suit you?"
he asked, looking out of the window, and referring to
the middle horse of the team which he had .sold.
Just as Vronsky left the room, Petritsky called out
to him, " Hold on ! your brother left a note and a letter.
Hold on ! where did I put them .-' "
Vronsky waited impatiently.
" Well, where are they ? "
" Where are they indeed ? That 's the question,"
declaimed Petritsky, solemnly, putting his forefinger
above his nose.
" Speak quick ! no nonsense ! " said Vronsky, smiling.
" I have not had any fire in the fireplace ; where can
I have put them .-* "
"Come now, that's enough talk! where 's the letter?"
" I swear I have forgotten ; or did I dream about it ?
Wait, wait ! don't get angry. If you had drunk four
bottles, as I did yesterday, you would n't even know
where you went to bed. Hold on, I '11 think in a min-
ute."
Petritsky went behind his screen again, and got into
bed.
" Hold on ! I was lying here. He stood there. Da-
da-da-da I .... Here it is ! "
And he pulled the letter out from under the mattress,
where he had put it.
Vronsky took the letter and his brother's note. It
was exactly as he expected. His mother reproached
him because he had not been to see her, and his brother
said he had something to speak to him about. " What
concern is it of theirs ? " he muttered ; and, crumpling
^34 ANNA KARENINA
up the notes, he thrust them between his coat-buttons,
intending to read them more carefully on the way.
Just as he left the izba, he met two officers, one of
whom belonged to a different regiment. Vronsky's
quarters were always the headquarters of all the offi-
cers.
"Whither away.?"
"Must — to Peterhof."
" Has your horse come from Tsarskoye .-' "
" Yes, but I have not seen her yet."
"They say Makhotin's 'Gladiator' is lame."
" Rubbislj ! But how can you trot in such mud ? "
said the other.
" Here are my saviors," cried Petritsky, as he saw
the newcomers. The denshchik was standing before
him with vodka and salted cucumbers on a platter.
"Yashvin, here, ordered me to drink, so as to clear my
head."
" Well, you were too much for us last night," said
one of the officers. "You did not let us sleep all night."
"I must tell you how we ended it," began Petritsky.
" Volkof climbed up on the roof, and told us that he
was blue. I sung out, 'Give us some music, — a fu-
neral march.' And he went to sleep on the roof to the
music of the funeral march."
" Drink, drink your vodka by all means, and then
take seltzer and a lot of lemon," said Yashvin, encour-
aging Petritsky as a mother encourages her child to
swallow some medicine. "It is only a little bottle."
" Now, this is sense. Hold on, Vronsky, and have a
drink with us ! "
" No. Good-by, gentlemen. I am not drinking to-
day."
. "Vronsky," cried some one, after he had gone into
the vestibule.
"What?"
"You'd better cut off your hair; it's getting very
long, especially on the bald spot."
Vronsky, in fact, was beginning to get a little bald.
He laughed gayly, showing his splendid teeth, and, pull-
ANNA KARENINA 235
ing his cap over the bald spot, he went out and got
into his carriage.
"To the stables," he said.
He started to take his letters for a second reading,
but on second thought deferred them so that he might
think of nothing else but his horse.
"I'll wait."
CHAPTER XXI
A TEMPORARY Stable, — a balagan, or hut, — made out
of planks, had been built near the race-course ; and here
Vronsky's horse should have been brought the evening
before. He had not as yet seen her. During the last
few days he himself had not been out to drive, but he had
intrusted her to the trainer; and Vronsky did not know
in what condition he should find her. He was just get-
ting out of his carriage when his konyukh, or groom, a
young fellow, saw him from a distance, and immediately
called the trainer. This was an Englishman with with-
ered face and tufted chin, and dressed in short jacket
and top-boots. He came out toward Vronsky in the
mincing step peculiar to jockeys, and with elbows stick-
ing out.
"Well, how is Frou Frou } " said Vronsky, in English.
*' A// right, sir" said the Englishman, in a voice that
came out of the bottom of his throat. " Better not go
in, sir," he added, taking off his hat. " I have put a
muzzle on her, and that excites her. Better not go in,
it excites a horse."
" No, I am going in, I want to see her."
" Come on, then," replied the Englishman, testily ;
and, without ever opening his mouth, and with his dandi-
fied step, he led the way.
They went into a small yard in front of the stable.
An active and alert stable-boy in a clean jacket, with
whip in hand, met them as they entered, and followed
them. Five horses were in the stable, each in its own
stall. Vronsky knew that his most redoubtable rival, —
236 ANNA KARENINA
Makhotin's Gladiator, a chestnut horse five vershoks
high, — was there, and he was more curious to see Gladia-
tor than to see his own racer ; but he knew that, accord-
ing to the etiquette of the races, he could not have him
brought out, or even ask questions about him. As he
passed along the corridor the groom opened the door of
the second stall at the left, and Vronsky saw a powerful
chestnut with white feet. He knew it was Gladiator ;
but with the delicacy of a man who turns away from an
open letter which is not addressed to him, he instantly
turned away and walked toward Frou Frou's stall.
tii«5«That horse belongs to Ma,... k.... mak, .... I never
can pronounce his name," said the Englishman, over
his shoulder, and pointing to Gladiator's stall with a
huge finger, the nail of which was black with dirt.
" Makhotin's ? Yes ; he is my only dangerous rival."
" If you would mount him, I would bet on you," said
the Englishman.
" Frou Frou has more nerve, this one stronger,"
said Vronsky, smiling at the jockey's praise.
" In hurdle-races, all depends on the mount, and on
pluck."
Pluck — that is, audacity and coolness — Vronsky
knew that he had in abundance ; and, what was far
more important, he was firmly convinced that no one
could have more of this pluck than he had.
" You are sure that a good sweating was not neces-
sary } "
" Not at all," replied the Englishman. " Please not
speak so loud, the horse is restive," he added, jerking
his head toward the closed stall in front of which they
were standing. They could hear the horse stamping on
the straw.
He opened the door, and Vronsky entered a box-stall
feebly lighted by a little window. A dark bay horse,
muzzled, was nervously prancing up and down on the
fresh straw. As he gazed into the semi-obscurity of
the stall, Vronsky in spite of himself took in at one gen-
eral observation all the points of his favorite horse.
Frou Frou was a horse of medium size, and not faultless
ANNA KARENINA 237
in form. Her bones were slender, although her brisket
showed powerfully ; her breast was narrow, the crupper
was rather tapering ; and the legs, particularly the hind
legs, considerably bowed. The muscles of the legs were
not big ; but, on the other hand, where the saddle rested
the horse was extraordinarily wide, and this was particu-
larly striking by reason of the firmness and the small-
ness of her belly. The bones of the legs below the
knee seemed not thicker than a finger, seen from the
front ; they were extraordinarily large when seen side-
wise. The whole steed, with the exception of the ribs,
seemed squeezed in and lengthened out. But she had
one merit that outweighed all her faults : she was a
thoroughbred, had good blood, — whifh tells, as the
English say. Her muscles, standing out under a net-
work of veins, covered with a skin as smooth and soft
as satin, seemed as solid as bone ; her slender head, with
prominent eyes, bright and animated, widened out at
the septum into projecting nostrils with membrane
which seemed suffused with blood. In her whole form
and especially in her head there was an expression of
something energetic and decided, and at the same time
good-tempered. It was one of those creatures which
do not speak for the single reason that the mechanical
construction of their mouths does not permit of it.
Vronsky, at any rate, was convinced that she under-
stood all of his thoughts while he was looking at her.
As soon as he went to her she began to take long
breaths, and, turning her prominent eyes so that the
whites became suffused with blood, she gazed from the
opposite side at the visitors, trying to shake off her
muzzle, and dancing on her feet with elastic motion.
" You see how excited she is," said the English-
man.
" Whoa, my loveliest, whoa ! " said Vronsky, approach-
ing to soothe her ; but the nearer he came the more ner-
vous she grew, and only when he had caressed her head
did she become tranquil. He could feel her muscles
strain and tremble under her delicate, smooth skin.
Vronsky smoothed her powerful neck, and put into
238 ANNA KARENINA
place a tuft of her mane that she had tossed on the
other side ; and then he put his face close to her nos-
trils, which swelled and dilated like the wings of a bat.
She drew in the air, and loudly expelled it from her
quivering nostrils, pricked up her sharp ears, and
stretched out her long black lips to seize his sleeve ;
but, when she found herself prevented by her muzzle,
she shook it, and began to caper again on her slender
legs.
"Quiet, my beauty, quiet," said Vronsky, calming
her ; and he left the stable with the reassuring convic-
tion that his horse was in perfect condition.
But the nervousness of the steed had taken posses-
sion of Vronsky ; he felt the blood rush to his heart,
and, like the horse, he wanted violent action ; he felt
like prancing and biting. It was a sensation at once
strange and joyful.
"Well, I count on you," said he to the Englishman.
" Be on the grounds at half-past six."
" All shall be ready. But where are you going, my
lord.!*" asked the Englishman, using the title of "my
lord," which he almost never permitted himself to use.
Astonished at this, Vronsky raised his head, and
looked at him as he well understood how to do, not
into the Englishman's eyes, but at his forehead. He
instantly saw that the Englishman had spoken to him,
not as to his master, but as to a jockey ; and he replied : —
" I have got to see Briansky, and I shall be at home
in an hour."
" How many times have I been asked that question
to-day ! " he said to himself ; and he grew red, which
was a rare occurrence with him. The Englishman
looked at him closely. And, as if he also knew where
Vronsky was going, he said : —
"The main thing is to keep calm before the race.
Don't get out of sorts ; don't get bothered."
''All right," replied Vronsky, with a smile ; and, jump-
ing into his carriage, he ordered the coachman to drive
to Peterhof.
He had gone but a short distance before the clouds,
ANNA KARENINA 239
which since morning had been threatening rain, grew
thicker, and a heavy shower fell.
"Too bad!" thought Vronsky, raising the hood of
his carriage. " It has been muddy ; now it will be a
swamp."
Now that he was sitting alone in his covered calash,
he took out his mother's letter and his brother's note,
and read them over.
Yes, it was always the old story ; both his mother
and his brother found it necessary to meddle with his
love-affairs. This interference aroused his anger, — a
feeling which he rarely experienced.
" How does this concern them .-' Why does every
one feel called on to meddle with me, and why do they
bother me .-* Because they see that there is something
about this that they can't understand. If it were an
ordinary vulgar society intrigue, they would leave me
in peace ; but they imagine that it is something else,
that it is not mere trifling, that this woman is dearer
to me than life ; that is incredible and vexatious to
them. Whatever be our fate, we ourselves have made
it, and we shall not regret it," he said to himself, in-
cluding Anna in the word "we." "But no, they want
to teach us how to live. They have no idea of what
happiness is. They don't know that, were it not for
this love, there would be for us neither joy nor grief in
this world ; life itself would not exist."
In reality, what exasperated him most against every
one was the fact that his conscience told him that they
— all of them — were right. He felt that his love for
Anna was not a superficial impulse, destined, like so
many social attachments, to disappear, and leave no trace
beyond sweet or painful memories. He felt keenly all
the torture of her situation and his, and how difficult
it was in the prominent position which they held in the
eyes of society to hide their love, to lie, to deceive,
to dissemble, and constantly to think about others, when
the passion uniting them was so violent that they both
forgot about everything else except their love.
He vividly pictured to himself all the constantly re-
240 ANNA KARENINA
curring circumstances when it was essential to employ
falsehood and deceit, which were so contrary to his
nature. He recalled with especial vividness the feel-
ing of shame which he had often surprised in Anna,
when she also was driven to tell a lie.
Since this affair with her, he sometimes experienced
a strange sensation. This was a feeling of disgust and
repulsion for some one, he could not tell for whom he
felt it — for Alekseif Aleksandrovitch or himself, or for
all society. As far as possible he banished this strange
feeling.
" Yes, heretofore she has been unhappy, but proud
and calm ; now she cannot be proud and content any
longer, though she may not betray the fact. Yes, this
must end," he would conclude in his own mind.
And for the first time the thought of cutting short
this life of dissimulation appeared to him clear and tan-
gible ; the sooner, the better.
" She and I must leave everything, and together we
must go and hide ourselves somewhere with our love,"
he said to himself.
CHAPTER XXII
The shower was of short duration ; and when Vronsky
reached Peterhof, his shaft-horse at full trot, and the
other two galloping along in the mud, the sun was
already out again, and the wet roofs of the villas and
the old lindens in the gardens on both sides of the prin-
cipal avenue were dazzlingly shining. The water was
running from the roofs, and the raindrops were drip-
ping from the tree-tops. He no longer thought of the
harm that the shower might do the race-course, but he
was full of joy as he remembered that, thanks to the
rain, she would be alone ; for he knew that Alekseif
Aleksandrovitch, who had just got back from a visit to
the baths, would not have driven out from Petersburg.
Hoping to find her alone, Vronsky stopped his horses,
as he always did, at some little distance from the house,
ANNA KARENINA 241
.n order to attract as little attention as possible, and, not
driving across the little bridge, got out and went to the
house on foot. He did not go to the front entrance,
but went through the court.
" Has the barin come.''" he asked of a gardener.
"Not yet; but the baruinya is at home. Go to the
front door ; there are servants there ; if you ring, they
will open the door."
" No ; I will go in through the garden."
Having satisfied himself that she was alone, and wish-
ing to surprise her, as he had not promised that he was
coming that day, and on account of the races she would
not be looking for him, he walked cautiously along the
sandy paths, bordered with flowers, lifting up his saber
so that it should make no noise. In this way he reached
the terrace which led down to the garden. Vronsky had
by this time forgotten all the thoughts which had op-
pressed him on the way about the difficulties of his situ-
ation ; he thought only of the pleasure of shortly seeing
her, not in imagination only, but alive, in person, as she
was in reality.
He was mounting- the steep steps as gently as possi-
ble, when he suddenly remembered what he was always
forgetting, and what constituted the most painful fea-
ture of his relations with her, — her son, with his inquisi-
tive and, as it seemed to him, repulsive face.
This child was the principal obstacle in the way of
their interviews. When he was present neither Vron-
sky nor Anna allowed themselves to speak of anything
which the whole world might not hear, nor, what was
more, did they even hint at anything which the child
himself could not comprehend. There was no need of an
agreement on that score, it was instinctive with them.
Both of them considered it degrading to themselves to de-
ceive the little lad ; before him they talked as if they were
mere acquaintances. But in spite of this circumspection
Vronsky often noticed the lad's scrutinizing and rather
suspicious eyes fixed on him, and a strange timidity and
variability in his behavior toward him. Sometimes he
seemed affectionate, and then again cold and shy. The
VOL. I. — 16
242 ANNA KARENINA
child seemed instinctively to feel that between this man
and his mother there was some strange bond of union,
which was beyond his comprehension.
In fact, the boy felt that he could not understand this
relationship, and he tried in vain to account to himself
for the feeling which he ought to have for this man.
He saw, with that quick intuition peculiar to childhood,
that his father, his governess, and his nurse — all of
them — not only did not like Vronsky, but looked with the
utmost disfavor on him, although they never spoke about
him, while his mother treated him as her best friend.
" What does this mean .-* Who is he .■' Must I love
him ? and is it my fault, and am I a naughty or stupid
child, if I don't understand it at all ? " thought the little
fellow. Hence came his timidity, his questioning and
distrustful manner, and this changeableness, which were
so unpleasant to Vronsky, The presence of this child
always caused in Vronsky that strange feeling of unrea-
sonable repulsion which for some time had pursued him.
The presence of the child aroused in Vronsky and
Anna a feeling like that experienced by a mariner who
sees by the compass that the course in which he is
swiftly moving is widely different from what it should
be, but that to stop this course is not in his power ; that
every instant carries him farther and farther in the wrong
direction, and the recognition of the movement that
carries him from the right course is the recognition of
the ruin that impends.
This child with his innocent views of life was the
compass which pointed out to them the degree of their
deviation from what they knew but wished not to know.
This day Serozha was not at home and Anna was en-
tirely alone, and sitting on the terrace waiting for the
return of her son, who had gone out to walk and got
caught in the rain. She had sent a man and a maid to
find him, and was sitting there till he should return.
Dressed in a white gown with wide embroidery, she
was sitting at one corner of the terrace, concealed "by
plants and flowers, and she did not hear Vronsky's step.
With her dark curly head bent, she was pressing her
ANNA KARENINA 243
heated brow against a cool watering-pot, standing on
the balustrade, and with both her beautiful hands laden
with rings, which he knew so well, she was holding the
watering-pot. The beauty of her figure, her head, her
neck, her hands, always caused in Vronsky a new feeling
of surprise. He stopped and looked at her in ecstasy.
But as soon as he proceeded to take another step and
come nearer to her, she felt his approach, pushed away
the watering-pot, and turned to him her glowing face.
" What is the matter ? Are you ill ? " said he, in
French, as he approached her. He felt a desire to run
to her, but, remembering that there might be witnesses,
he looked toward the balcony door and turned red, as
he always turned red when he felt that he ought to be
ashamed of himself and dread to be seen.
"No; I am well," said Anna, rising, and warmly
pressing the hand that he offered her. " I did not ex-
pect .... you."
" Bozhe mof ! how cold your hands are ! "
" You startled me," said she. " I was alone, waiting
for Serozha. He went out for a walk ; they will come
back this way."
But though she tried to be calm, her lips trembled.
" Forgive me for coming, but I could not let the day
go by without seeing you," he continued, in French, as
he always spoke, thus avoiding the impossible vtn, you,
and the dangerous tid, thou, of the Russian.
" What have I to forgive ? I am so glad ! "
" But you are ill, or sad .-* " said he, bending over her
and still holding her hand. " What were you thinking
about ? "
" Always about one thing," she replied, with a smile.
She told the truth. If at any moment she had been
asked what she was thinking about, she could have
made the infallible reply, that she was thinking about
one thing : her happiness and her unhappiness. Just
as he had surprised her, she was thinking about this :
she was thinking how it was that for some, for Betsy,
for example, — for she knew about her love-affair with
Tushkievitch, though it was a secret from society in
244
ANNA KARENINA
general, — all this was such a trifle, while for her it was
so painful. To-day this thought, for various reasons,
had been particularly tormenting her.
She asked him about the races. He answered her,
and, seeing that she was in a very excited state, in order
to divert her mind, told her, in the tone most natural,
about the preparation that had been made.
" Shall I, or shall I not, tell him ? " she thought, as
she looked at his calm, affectionate eyes. " He seems
so happy, he is so interested in these races, that he will
not comprehend, probably, the importance of what I
must tell him."
" But you have not told me of what you were think-
ing when I came," said he, suddenly, interrupting the
course of his narration. " Tell me, I beg of you ! "
She did not reply ; but she lifted her head a little,
and looked at him questioningly f rom her beautiful eyes,
shaded by her long lashes ; her fingers, playing with a
fallen leaf, trembled.
He saw this, and his face immediately showed the
expression of humble adoration, of absolute devotion,
which had so won her,
" I see that something has happened. Can I be easy
for an instant when I know that you feel a grief that I
do not share .-* In the name of Heaven, speak ! " he in-
sisted, in a caressing tone.
"I shall never forgive him if he does not appreciate
the importance of what I have to tell him ; better be
silent than put him to the proof," she thought, continu-
ing to look at him in the same way, and conscious that
her hand, holding the leaf, trembled more and more
violently.
" In the name of Heaven ! " said he, taking her hand
again.
" Shall I tell you ? "
"Yes, yes, yes .... "
"J^e suis enceinte ! " she said, in a low and deliberate
voice.
The leaf that she held in her fingers trembled still
more, but she did not take her eyes from his face, for
ANNA KARENINA 245
she wished to see how he would receive what she
said.
He grew pale, tried to speak, then stopped short,
dropped her hand, and hung his head.
"Yes, he understands the significance of this," she
said to herself, and gratefully pressed his hand.
But she was mistaken in thinking that he appreciated
the significance of what she had told him, as she, a
woman, did. On learning this, he felt that he was
attacked with tenfold force by that strange feeling of
repulsion and horror which he had already experienced.
But at the same time, he realized that the crisis which
he had expected was now at hand, that it was impossible
longer to keep the secret from the husband ; and it was
important to extricate themselves as soon as possible
from the unnatural situation in which they were placed.
Moreover, her anguish communicated itself to him
physically. He looked at her with humbly submissive
eyes, kissed her hand, arose, and began to walk up and
down the terrace without speaking.
At last he approached her, and said in a tone of
decision : —
"Well," said he, "neither you nor I have looked on
our relations as a pastime, and now our fate is decided ;
at last we must put an end to the false situation in
which we live," — and he looked around him.
" Put an end ? How put an end, Aleksel ? " she asked
gently.
She was calm now, and her face beamed with a tender
smile.
"You must leave your husband and unite your life
with mine."
"But aren't they already united.-'" she asked, in
an almost inaudible voice.
" Yes, but not completely, not absolutely ! "
"But how, Aleksei'.'' tell me how," said she, with
a melancholy irony at the hopelessness of her situation.
" How is there any escape from such a position ? Am
I not the wife of my husband } "
" From any situation, however difficult, there is always
246 ANNA KARENINA
some way of escape ; here we must simply decide. —
Anything is better than the Hfe you are leading. How
well I see how you are tormenting yourself about your
husband, your son, society, all ! "
"Akh ! only not my husband," said she, with a simple
smile. " I don't know him, I don't think about him !
He is not."
"You speak insincerely! I know you ; you torment
yourself on his account also."
"Not even he knows ...." said she, and suddenly a
bright crimson spread over her face ; it colored her
cheeks, brow, her neck, and tears of shame came into
her eyes.
*' Let us not speak more of him."
CHAPTER XXni
Vronsky had many times tried, though not so de-
cidedly as now, to bring clearly before her mind their
position; and always he had met the same superficial
and frivolous way of looking at it, as she now treated
his demand. Apparently, there was something in this
which she was unwilling or unable to fathom; appar-
ently, as soon as she began to speak about it, she, the
real Anna, disappeared, to give place to a strange and
incomprehensible woman, whom he did not love, but
feared, and who was repulsive to him. To-day he was
bound to have an absolute explanation.
"Whether he knows or not," he said, in a calm but
authoritative voice, " whether he knows or not, it does
not concern us. We cannot.... we cannot now continue
as we are."
"What, in your opinion, must we do about it.?" she
demanded, in the same bantering tone of irony. Though
she had been so keenly apprehensive that he would not
receive her confidence with due appreciation, she was
now vexed that he deduced from it the absolute neces-
sity of energetic action.
"Tell him all, and leave him."
ANNA KARENINA 247
"Very good ! let us suppose I do it," said she. "Do
you know what the result would be ? I will tell you ; "
and a wicked fire flashed from her eyes, which were
just now so gentle. "'Oh! you love another, and
your course with him has been criviijial,' " said she,
imitating her husband, and accenting the word criminal
in exactly his manner. " ' I warned you of the con-
sequences which would follow from the point of view
of religion, of society, and of the family. You did not
listen to me ; now I cannot allow my name to be dis-
honored, and my ' " — she was going to say my son, but
stopped, for she could not jest about him — " 'my name
dishonored,' and so on in the same style," she added.
" In a word, he will tell me with his official manner
and with precision and clearness that he cannot set me
free, but that he will take measures to avoid a scandal.
And he will do exactly as he says. That is what will
take place ; for he is not a man, he is a machine, and,
when he is stirred up, an ugly machine," said she, call-
ing to mind the most trifling details in her husband's
face and manner of speaking, and charging to him as a
crime all the ill that she could find in him, and not
pardoning him at all on account of the terrible sin of
which she had been guilty before him.
"But, Anna," said Vronsky, in a persuasive, tender
voice, trying to calm her, "you must tell him every-
thing, and act accordingly as he proceeds."
"What! elope.?"
" Why not elope } I see no possibility of living as
we are any longer ; it is not on my account, but I see
you will suffer."
" What ! elope, and become your mistress } " said she,
bitterly.
" Anna ! " he cried, deeply wounded.
" Yes, your mistress, and lose everything ! " ....
Again she was going to say mj sou, but she could
not pronounce the word.
Vronsky could not understand how she, with her
strong, loyal nature, could accept the false position in
which she was placed, and not endeavor to escape from
248 ANNA KARENINA
it. But he could not doubt that the principal cause
of this was represented by that word son, which she
could not pronounce.
When she thought of her son and his future relations
to a mother who had deserted his father, the horror of
what she had done appeared so great, that, like a real
woman, she was not able to reason, but only endeavored
to reassure herself by fallacious arguments, and persuade
herself that all would go on as before ; above all things,
she must shut her eyes, and forget this terrible ques-
tion, what would become of her son.
" I beg of you, I entreat you," she said suddenly,
speaking in a very different tone, a tone of tenderness
and sincerity, and seizing his hand, "don't ever speak
to me of that again."
"But, Anna...."
" Never, never ! Leave it to me. I know all the
depth, all the horror, of my situation, but it is not so
easy as you imagine to decide. Let me decide, and
listen to me. Never speak to me again of that. Will
you promise me "i .... never, never } promise ! " ....
" I promise all ; but I cannot be calm, especially
after what you have told me. I cannot be calm when
you cannot be calm." ....
"I.?" she repeated. "Yes, I suffer torments some-
times, but that will pass if you will not say anything
more about it. When you speak with me about this,
then, and then only, it tortures me."
" I don't understand .... "
" I know," she interrupted, " how your honest nature
abhors lying ; I am sorry for you ; and very often I
think that you have sacrificed your life for me ! "
"That is exactly what I say about you. I was just
this moment thinking how you could sacrifice yourself
for me ! I cannot forgive myself for having made you
unhappy."
"I unhappy.?" said she, coming up close to him,
and looking at him with a smile of enthusiastic love.
" I .!* I am like a man dying of hunger, to whom food
has been given. Maybe he is cold, and his raiment is
ANNA KARENINA 249
rags, and he is ashamed, but he is not unhappy. I un-
happy ? No ; here comes my joy." ....
She had heard the voice of her Httle boy coming
near, and giving a hurried glance around her, swiftly
arose. Her face glowed with the fire which Vronsky
knew so well, and with a hasty motion putting out her
lovely hands, covered with rings, she took Vronsky's
face between them, looked at him a long moment,
reached her face up to his, with her smiling lips parted,
kissed his mouth and both eyes, and pushed him away.
She started to go, but he kept her back a moment.
" When ? " he whispered, looking at her with ecstasy.
" To-day at one o'clock," she replied in a low voice,
and with a deep sigh she ran, in her light, graceful
gait, to meet her son.
Serozha had been caught by the rain in the park,
and had taken refuge with his nurse in a pavilion.
"Well, good-by — da svidanya !'' said she to Vron-
sky. " I must get ready for the races. Betsy has
promised to come and get me."
Vronsky looked at his watch, and hurried away.
CHAPTER XXIV
When Vronsky looked at his watch on the Karenins'
terrace, he was so stirred and preoccupied, that, though
he saw the figures on the face, he did not know what
time it was. He hurried along the driveway, and, pick-
ing his way carefully through the mud, he reached his
carriage. He had been so absorbed by his conversation
with Anna that he did not notice the hour, or ask if he
still had time to go to Briansky's. As it often happens,
he had only the external faculty of memory, and it re-
called to him only that he had decided to do something.
He found his coachman dozing on his box under the
already slanting shade of the linden ; he noticed the
swarms of midgets buzzing around his sweaty horses ;
then, waking the coachman, he jumped into his carriage,
and ordered him to drive to Briansky's ; only after he
250 ANNA KARENINA
had gone six or seven versts did he remember that he
had looked at his watch and reahzed that it was half-
past five, and that he was late.
On that day there were *to be several races : first the
draught-horses, then the officers' two-verst dash, then a
second of four, and last that in which he was to take
part. He could be in time for his race, but, if he went
to Briansky's, he ran the risk of getting to the grounds
after the court had arrived. That was not in good
form. But he had promised Briansky to be there, there-
fore he kept on, commanding the coachman not to spare
the trofka. He reached Briansky's, spent five minutes
with him, and was off again at full speed. The rapid
motion calmed him. All the difficulties that confronted
him in his relations with Anna, all the uncertainty that
remained after their conversation, vanished from his
mind ; he thought with delight and excitement of the
race, and how he might after all get there in time, and
then again he vividly imagined the brilliant society
which would gather to-day at the course.
And he got more and more into the atmosphere of
the races as he overtook people coming in their car-
riages from various villas, and even from Petersburg, on
their way to the hippodrome.
When he reached his quarters, no one was at home ;
all had gone to the races, except his valet, who was wait-
ing for him at the entrance. While he was changing
his clothes, his valet told him that the second race had
already begun^ that a number of gentlemen had been to
inquire for him.
Vronsky dressed without haste, — for he never was
hurried and he never lost his self-command, — and di-
rected the coachman to take him to the stables. P>om
there he saw a sea of carriages of all sorts, of pedes-
trians, soldiers, and of spectators, surrounding the hip-
podrome, and the seats boiling with people.
Evidently the second course had been run, for just
as he reached the stables he heard the sound of a bell.
As he reached the stable, he noticed Makhotin's white-
footed chestnut Gladiator, covered with a blue and
ANNA KARENINA 251
orange caparison, and with huge ear-protectors trimmed
with blue. They were leading him out to the hippo-
drome.
" Where is Cord ? " he asked of the groom.
" In the stable ; he is putting on the saddle."
Frou Frou was all saddled in her open box-stall. They
started to lead her out.
" I am not late, am I .-' "
'' All right, all right,'' said the Englishman. "Don't
get excited."
Vronsky once more gave a quick glance at the excel-
lent, favorable shape of his horse, as she stood trem-
bling in every limb ; and, finding it hard to tear himself
away from such a beautiful sight, he left her at the
stable. He approached the benches at a most favorable
moment for doing this without attracting observation.
The two-verst dash was just at an end, and all eyes were
fixed on a cavalry-guardsman who was in the lead, and a
hussar just at his heels, whipping their horses furiously,
and approaching the goal. From the center and both
ends all crowded in toward the goal, and a group of
officers and guardsmen were hailing with shouts the
triumph of their fellow-officer and friend.
Vronsky, without being noticed, joined the throng
just as the bell announced the end of the race ; the
victor, a tall cavalry -guardsman, covered with mud,
dropped the reins, slipped off from the saddle, and stood
by his roan stallion, which was black with sweat, and
heavily breathing.
The stallion, with a violent effort thrusting out his
legs, had stopped the swift course of his big body ; and
the officer, like a man awakening from a deep sleep, was
looking about him, trying hard to smile. A throng of
friends and strangers pressed about him.
Vronsky, with intention, avoided the elegant people
who were circulating about, engaged in gay and ani-
mated conversation in front of the seats. He had al-
ready caught sight of Anna, Betsy, and his brother's
wife, but he did not join them, so that he might not be
disconcerted ; but he kept meeting acquaintances who
252 ANNA KARENINA
stopped him, and told him various items about the last
race, or asked him why he was late.
While they were distributing the prizes at the pavilion,
and every one had gone in this direction, Vronsky was
joined by fiis elder brother. Aleksandr Vronsky was a
colonel and wore epaulets, and, like AlekseY, was a
man of medium stature, and rather thick-set ; but he
was handsomer and ruddier. His nose was red, and
his frank, open face was flushed with wine.
" Did you get my note ? " he asked of his brother.
"You are never to be found."
Aleksandr Vronsky, in spite of his life of dissipation
and his love for drink, which was notorious, was a thor-
oughly courtly man. Knowing that many eyes might
be fixed on them, he preserved, while he talked on a
very painful subject, a smiling face, as if he were jesting
with his brother about some trifling matter.
"I got it," said he, "but I really don't understand
why you interfere."
" I interfere because I noticed you were not to be
found this morning, and because you were seen at
Peterhof Monday."
"There are matters which cannot be judged except
by those who are directly interested, and the matter in
which you concern yourself is such." ....
"Yes ; but when one is not in the service, he...,"
" I beg you to mind your own business, and that is all."
Aleksef Vronsky's frowning face grew pale, and his
rather prominent lower jaw shook. This happened
rarely with him. He was a man of kindly heart, and
rarely got angry ; but when he grew angry, and when
his chin trembled, he became dangerous. Aleksandr
Vronsky knew it, and with a gay laugh replied : —
" I only wanted to give you matushka's letter. An-
swer it, and don't get angry before the race. Bonne
chance,'' he added, with a smile, and left him.
The next moment another friendly greeting surprised
Vronsky.
" Won't you recognize your friends .'* How are you,
mon cher?" said Stepan Arkady evitch, with his rosy
ANNA KARENINA 253
face and carefully combed and pomaded whiskers ; in
the midst of the brilliant society of Petersburg, he was
no less brilliant than at Moscow. " I came down yes-
terday, and am very glad to be present at your triumph.
When can we meet .■* "
" Come to the mess, after the race is over," said
Vronsky ; and with an apology for leaving him, he
squeezed the sleeve of his paletot, and went to the
middle of the hippodrome, where they were bringing the
horses for the handicap-race.
The grooms were leading back the sweaty horses,
wearied by the race which they had run ; and one by
one the fresh horses entered for the next course appeared
on the ground. They were, for the most part, English
horses, in hoods, and well caparisoned, and looked like
enormous strange birds. At the right-hand side they
were leading in the lean beauty, Frou Frou, which came
out, stepping high as if on springs, with her elastic and
slender pasterns. And not far from her they were
removing the trappings from the lop-eared Gladiator.
The stallion's solid, superb, and perfectly symmetrical
form, with his splendid crupper and his extraordinarily
short pasterns placed directly over the hoofs, attracted
Vronsky's admiration. He was just going up to Frou
Frou when another acquaintance stopped him again.
" Ah ! there is Karenin," said the friend with whom
he was talking ; " he is hunting for his wife. She is in
the very center of the pavilion. Have you seen her.?"
" No, I have not," replied Vronsky ; and, without
turning his head in the direction where his acquain-
tance told him that Madame Karenin was, he went to
his horse.
He had scarcely time to make some adjustment of
the saddle, when those who were to compete in the
hurdle-race were called to receive their numbers and
directions. With serious, stern, and some with pale
faces, seventeen men in all approached the stand and
received their numbers. Vronsky's number was seven.
" Mount ! " was the cry.
Vronsky, feeling that he, with his companions, was
254 ANNA KARENINA
the focus toward which all eyes were turned, went up
to his horse with the slow and deliberate motions which
were usual to him when he was under the strain of
excitement.
Cord, in honor of the races, had put on his gala-day
costume : he wore a black coat, buttoned to the chin,
and a stiffly starched shirt-collar, which made a support
for his cheeks; he had on Hessian boots and a round
black cap. He was, as always, calm and full of impor-
tance, as he stood by the mare's head, holding both
reins in his hand. Frou Frou was still shivering as if
she had an attack of fever ; her fiery eyes gazed askance
at Vronsky as he approached. He passed his finger
under the girth of the saddle. The mare looked at him
still more askance, showed her teeth, and pricked up
her ears. The Englishman puckered up his lips with a
grin at the idea that there could be any doubt as to his
skill in putting on a saddle. " Mount, and you won't
be so nervous," said he.
Vronsky cast a final glance on his rivals ; he knew
that he should not see them again until the race was
over. Two of them had already gone to the starting-
point. Galtsin, a friend of his, and one of his dangerous
rivals, was turning around and around his bay stallion,
which was trying to keep him from mounting. A little
Leib-hussar in tight cavalry trousers was off on a gal-
lop, bent double over his horse, like a cat on the crupper,
in imitation of the English fashion. Prince Kuzovlef,
white as a sheet, was mounted on a thoroughbred mare
from the Grabovsky stud ; an Englishman held it by
the bridle. Vronsky and all his comrades knew Kuzo-
vlef's terrible self-conceit, and his peculiarity of "weak
nerves." They knew that he was timid at everything,
especially timid of riding horseback ; but now, notwith-
standing the fact that all this was horrible to him,
because he knew that people broke their necks, and
that at every hurdle stood a surgeon, an ambulance with
its cross and sister of charity, still he had made up his
mind to ride.
They exchanged glances, and Vronsky gave him an
ANNA KARENINA 255
encouraging and approving nod. One only he now
failed to see : his most redoubtable rival, Makhotin, on
Gladiator, was not there.
"Don't be in haste," said Cord to Vronsky, "and
remember one thing : when you come to a hurdle, don't
pull back or spur on your horse ; let her take it her own
way."
"Very good," replied Vronsky, taking the reins.
" If possible, take the lead, but don't be discouraged
even to the last if you are behind."
The horse did not have time to stir before Vronsky,
with supple and powerful movement, put his foot on the
notched steel stirrup, and gracefully, firmly, took his
seat in the squeaking leather saddle. Having put his
right foot in the stirrup, with his customary care he then
arranged the double reins between his fingers, and
Cord let go the animal's head. Frou Frou, as if not
knowing which foot to put down first, stretched out her
neck, and pulled on the reins, and she started off as if
on springs, balancing her rider on her supple back.
Cord, quickening his pace, followed them. The mare,
excited, jumped to right and left, trying to take her
master off his guard, and pulled at the reins, and Vron-
sky vainly endeavored to calm her with his voice and
with his hand.
They were approaching the diked bank of the river,
where the starting-post was placed. Some of the riders
had gone on ahead, others were riding behind, when
Vronsky suddenly heard on the muddy track the gallop
of a horse ; and Makhotin dashed by on his white-footed,
lop-eared Gladiator. Makhotin smiled, showing his long
teeth, but Vronsky looked at him angrily. He did not
like Makhotin any too well, and now he regarded him
as his most dangerous rival ; and he was exasperated at
the way he galloped up behind him, exciting his mare. '
Frou Frou kicked up her heels and started off at a
gallop, made two bounds, and then, angry at the re-
straint of the curb, changed her gait into a trot which
shook up her rider. Cord was also disgusted, and ran
almost as fast as Vronsky.
256 ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER XXV
The number of the officers who were to take part
was seventeen. The race-course was a great ellipse of
four versts, extending before the judges' stand, and nine
obstacles were placed upon it : the "river" ; a great bar-
rier two arshins — four feet, eight inches — high, in front
of the pavilion ; a dry ditch ; a ditch filled with water ;
a steep ascent ; an Irish banketka, which is the most
difficult of all, composed of an embankment set with
dry branches, behind which is concealed a ditch, oblig-
ing the horseman to leap two obstacles at once, at the
risk of his life ; then three more ditches, two filled with
water and one dry ; and finally the goal opposite the
pavilion again. The track did not begin in the circle
itself, but about a hundred saahcns, or seven hundred
feet, to one side ; and in this space was the first obstacle,
the diked "river," about three arshins, or seven feet,
wide, which the racers were free to leap or to ford.
Three times the riders got into line, but each time
some horse or other started before the signal, and the
men had to be called back. Colonel Sestrin, the starter,
was beginning to get impatient ; but at last, for the
fourth time, the signal was given, '^ Pashol ! — Go ! " and
the riders put spurs to their horses.
All eyes, all lorgnettes, were directed toward the
variegated group of racers as they started off.
" There they go ! " " There they come ! " was the
cry on all sides after the silence of expectation.
And in order to follow them, the spectators rushed,
singly or in groups, toward the places where they could
get a better view. At the first moment the collected
group of horsemen scattered a little, and it could be
seen how they, in twos and threes, and singly, one after
the other, approached the "river." To the spectators it
seemed as if they were all moving together, but to the
racers themselves there were seconds of separation
which had great value.
Frou Frou, excited and too nervous at first, lost the
ANNA KARENINA 257
first moment, and several of the horses were ahead of
her; but Vronsky, not having yet reached the "river,"
and trying with all his might to calm her as she pulled
on the bridle, soon easily outstripped three, and now
had as competitors only Makhotin's chestnut Gladiator,
which was easily and smoothly running a whole length
ahead, and still more to the fore the pretty Diana, car-
rying Prince Kuzovlef, not knowing whether he was
dead or alive.
During these first few seconds Vronsky had control
neither of himself nor of his horse. Up to the first ob-
stacle, the " river," he could not control the movements
of his horse.
Gladiator and Diana reached it at almost one and the
same moment. Both at once rose above the reka, or
"river," and flew across to the other side. Frou Frou
lightly leaped behind them, as if she had wings. The
instant that Vronsky perceived that he was in the air,
he caught a gUmpse of Kuzovlef almost under the feet
of his horse, wrestling with Diana on the other side
of the "river." Kuzovlef had loosened the reins after
Diana jumped, and the horse had stumbled, throwing
him over her head. These details Vronsky learned
afterwards, but at this time he only saw that Frou Frou
might land on Diana's head or legs. But Frou Frou,
like a falling cat, making a desperate effort with back
and legs as she leaped, landed beyond the fallen racer.
" O you dear ! " thought Vronsky.
After the reka he got full control of his horse, and
even held her back a little, meaning to leap the great
hurdle behind Makhotin, and to do his best to outstrip
him when they reached the long stretch of about two
hundred sashcns, or fourteen hundred feet, which was
free of obstacles.
This great hurdle was built exactly in front of the
imperial pavilion ; the emperor, the court, and an im-
mense throng were watching them, watching him and
Makhotin on the horse a length ahead of him, as they
approached the choi't, or devil, as the barrier was called.
Vronsky felt all these eyes fixed on him from every side;
VOL. I. — 17
258 ANNA KARENINA
but he saw only his horse's ears and neck, the ground
flying under him, and Gladiator's flanks, and white feet
beating the ground in cadence, and always maintaining
the same distance between them. Gladiator flew at the
hurdle, gave a whisk of his well-cropped tail, and, with-
out having touched the hurdle, vanished from Vronsky's
eyes.
" Bravo ! " cried a voice.
At the same instant the planks of the hurdle flashed
before his eyes. Without the least change in her motion,
the horse rose under him. The planks creaked and just
behind him there was the sound of a thump. Frou Frou,
excited by the sight of Gladiator, had leaped too soon,
and had struck the hurdle with one of her hind feet, but
her gait was unchanged ; and Vronsky, his face splashed
with mud, saw that he was still at the same distance
from Gladiator, he saw once more Gladiator's crupper,
his short tail, and his swiftly moving white feet.
At the very instant that Vronsky decided that he
ought now to get ahead of Makhotin, Frou Frou herself
comprehending his thought, and needing no stimulus,
sensibly increased her speed, and gained on Makhotin
by trying to take the inside track next the rope. But
Makhotin did not yield this advantage. Vronsky was
wondering if they could not pass on the outside, when
Frou Frou, as if divining his thought, changed of her
own accord and took this direction. Her shoulder,
darkened with sweat, came up even with Gladiator's
flank, and for several seconds they flew almost side by
side ; but Vronsky, before the obstacle to which they
were now coming, in order not to take the outside of
the great circle, began to ply his reins, and, just on the
declivity, he managed to get the lead. As he drew by
Makhotin he saw his mud-stained face ; it even seemed
to him that he smiled. Vronsky had passed Makhotin,
but he was conscious that he was just behind, he was
still there, within a step ; and Vronsky could hear the
regular rhythm of Gladiator's feet, and his hurried, but
far from winded, breathing.
The next two obstacles, the ditch and the hurdle, were
ANNA KARENINA 2^9
easily passed, but Gladiator's gallop and puffing came
nearer, Vronsky gave Frou Frou the spur, and perceived
with a thrill of joy that she easily accelerated her speed ;
the sound of Gladiator's hoofs was heard once more in
the same relative distance behind.
He now had the lead, as he had desired, and as Cord
had recommended, and he felt sure of success. His
emotion, his joy, his affection for Frou Frou, were all
growing more pronounced. He wanted to look back,
but he did not dare to turn around, and he strove to calm
himself, and not to push his horse too far, so that she
might keep a reserve equal to that which he felt Gladi-
ator still maintained.
One obstacle, the most serious, now remained ; if he
cleared that before the others, then he would be first in.
He was now approaching the Irish banketka. He and
Frou Frou at the same instant caught sight of the ob-
stacle from afar, and both, horse and man felt a moment
of hesitation. Vronsky noticed the hesitation in his
horse's ears, and he was just lifting his whip ; but in-
stantly he was conscious that his fears were ungrounded,
the horse knew what she had to do. She got her start,
and, exactly as he had foreseen, spurning the ground, she
gave herself up to the force of inertia which carried her
far beyond the ditch ; then fell again into the measure
of her pace without effort and without change.
" Bravo, Vronsky ! "
He heard the acclamations of the throng. He knew
it was his friends and his regiment, who were standing
near this obstacle; and he could not fail to distinguish
Yashvin's voice, though he did not see him.
" O my beauty ! " said he to himself, thinking of Frou
Frou, and yet listening to what was going on behind
him. " He has cleared it," he said, as he heard Gladia-
tor's hoof-beats behind him.
The last ditch, full of water, five feet ^ wide, now was
left. Vronsky scarcely heeded it ; but, anxious to come
in far ahead of the others, he began to saw on the reins,
lifting her head and letting it fall again in time with the
^ Two arshins, four feet, eight inches. Three arshins make a sazhen.
26o ANNA KARENINA
rhythm of her gait. He felt that the horse was begin-
ning to draw on her last reserves ; not only were her
neck and her sides wet, but the sweat stood in drops
on her throat, her head, and her ears ; her breath was
short and gasping. Still, he was sure that she had
force enough to cover the fourteen hundred feet that
lay between him and the goal. Only because he felt
himself nearer the ground, and by the extraordinary
smoothness of her motion, did Vronsky realize how
much she had increased her speed. The ditch was
cleared, how, he did not know.
She cleared the ditch scarcely heeding it ; she cleared
it Hke a bird. But at this moment Vronsky felt, to his
horror, that, instead of taking the swing of his horse, he
had made, through some inexplicable reason, a wretch-
edly and unpardonably wrong motion in falling back
into the saddle. His position suddenly changed, and
he felt that something horrible had happened. He
could not give himself any clear idea of it ; but there
flashed by him a chestnut steed with white feet, and
Makhotin by a swift leap passed him.
One of Vronsky's feet touched the ground, and his
horse stumbled. He had scarcely time to clear himself
when the horse fell on her side, panting painfully, and
making vain efforts with her delicate foam-covered neck
to rise again. But she lay on the ground, and strug-
gled like a wounded bird ; the awkward movement
that he had made in the saddle had broken her back.
But he did not learn this till afterwards. Now he
saw only one thing, that Makhotin was far ahead, and
that he was tottering there alone, standing on the
muddy immovable ground, and before him, heavily pant-
ing, lay Frou Frou, who stretched her head toward
him, and looked at him with her beautiful eyes. Still
not realizing what had happened, Vronsky pulled on the
reins. The poor animal struggled like a fish, splitting
the flaps of the saddle, and tried to get up on her fore
legs ; but, unable to move her hind quarters, she fell
back on the ground all of a tremble, Vronsky, his face
pale and distorted with passion, and with trembling
ANNA KARENINA 261
lower jaw, kicked her in the belly and again pulled at
the reins. But she did not move, but gazed at her
master with one of her speaking looks, and buried her
nose in the sand.
" Aaah ! what have I done .•' " cried Vronsky, taking
her head in his hands. " Aaah ! what have I done .-* "
And the lost race ! and his humiliating, unpardonable
blunder! and the poor ruined horse! "Aaah! what
have I done ? "
The people's doctor and his assistant, the officers of
his regiment, ran to his aid ; but to his great mortifica-
tion he found that he was safe and sound. The horse's
back was broken and she had to be killed,
Vronsky could not answer the questions which were
put to him, could not speak a word to any one ; he turned
away and, without picking up his cap, left the hippo-
drome, not knowing whither he was going. He was in
despair. For the first time in his life he was the victim
of a misfortune for which there was no remedy, and for
which he felt that he himself was the only one to blame.
Yashvin, with his cap, overtook him and brought him
back to his quarters, and in half an hour Vronsky was calm
and self-possessed again ; but this race was for a long
time the most bitter and cruel remembrance of his life.
CHAPTER XXVI
The external relations of Aleksel Aleksandrovitch
and his wife were the same as they had been. The
only difference was that he was more absorbed in his
work than he had been. Early in the spring he went
abroad, as was his custom each year, to recuperate at
the water-cure after the fatigues of the winter. He re-
turned in July, as he usually did, and resumed his duties
with new energy. His wife had taken up her summer
quarters as usual in a datc/ta, or summer villa, not far
from Petersburg ; he remained in the city.
Since their conversation after the reception at the
Princess Tverskaya's, he had said nothing more about
262 ANNA KARENINA
his jealousies or suspicions ; and the tone of raillery
habitual with AlekseY Aleksandrovitch was to the high-
est degree useful to him in his present relations with
his wife. He was somewhat cooler in his treatment of
her, although he seemed to have felt only a slight ill-
will toward her after that night's conversation which
she had refused to listen to. In his relations to her
there was a shade of spite, but nothing more. He
seemed to say, " You have not been willing to have an
understanding with me ; so much the worse for you.
Now you must make the first advances, and I, in my
turn, will not listen to you."
" So much the worse for you," said he in his thought,
like a man who should try in vain to put out a fire and
should be angry at his vain efforts, and should say, " I
have done my best for you ; burn then ! "
This man, so keen and shrewd in matters of public
concern, could not see the absurdity of such behavior to
his wife. He did not understand it because it was too
terrible to understand his actual position. He preferred
to bury the affection which he felt for his wife and child
deep in his heart, as in a box locked and sealed. He,
a watchful father, had begun toward the end of that
winter to be singularly cold toward the child, speaking
to him in the same bantering tone that he used toward
his wife. When he addressed him he would say, " Ah,
young man ! "
Alekseif Aleksandrovitch thought and declared that
he had never had so many important affairs as this year ;
but he did not confess that he had himself under-
taken them in order to keep from opening his secret
coffer which contained his sentiments toward his wife
and his family, and his thoughts concerning them, —
thoughts which grew more and more terrible to him
the longer he kept them out of sight.
If any one had assumed the right to ask him what he
thought about his wife's conduct, this calm and pacific
Aleksel Aleksandrovitch would have made no reply, but
would have been very indignant with the man who
should dare to ask him such a question. And so his
ANNA KARENINA 263
face always looked stern and haughty whenever any one
asked how his wife was. Aleksef Aleksandrovitch did
not wish to think about his wife's conduct and feelings,
and therefore he did not think about them.
The Karenins' summer datcha was at Peterhof ; and the
Countess Lidya Ivanovna generally spent her summers
in the same neighborhood, keeping up friendly relations
with Anna. This year the countess had not cared to go to
Peterhof, nor had she once called on Anna Arkadyevna ;
and as she was talking with Karenin one day, she made
some allusion to the impropriety of Anna's intimacy
with Betsy and Vronsky. Aleksef Aleksandrovitch
stopped her harshly, and declared that for him his wife
was above suspicion, and from that day he avoided the
countess. He did not wish to see and he did not see
that many people in society were beginning to give
his wife the cold shoulder ; he did not wish to com-
prehend and he did not comprehend why his wife es-
pecially insisted on going to Tsarskoye, where Betsy
lived and from which it was not far to Vronsky's
camp.
He did not allow himself to think about this, and he
did not think ; but at the same time, without any proof
to support him, without actually acknowledging it to
himself, in the depths of his soul he felt that he was a
deceived husband ; he had no doubt about it, and he
suffered deeply.
How many times in the course of his eight years of
happy married life, as he had seen other men's wives
playing them false and other husbands deceived, had he
not asked himself, "How did it come to this.-* Why
don't they free themselves at any cost from such an
absurd situation .-* " But now, when the evil had fallen
on his own head, he not only did not dream of extricat-
ing himself from his own trouble, but he would not
even admit it, would not admit it for the very reason
that it was too horrible and too unnatural.
Since his return from abroad, Alekseif Aleksandrovitch
had gone twice to his wife's datcha, — once to dine
with her, the other time to pass the evening with some
264 ANNA KARENINA
guests, but not once had he spent the night, as had
been his custom in previous years.
The day of the races was extremely engrossing for
Aleksel Aleksandrovitch ; but when in the morning he
made out the program of the day, he decided to go to
his wife's datcha after an early dinner, and thence to
the hippodrome, where he expected to find the court,
and where it was proper that he should be seen. He
went to see his wife because he had resolved, for the
sake of propriety also, to visit his wife every week.
Moreover, it was the fifteenth of the month, and it was
his custom at this time to place in her hands the money
for the household expenses.
With his ordinary power over his thoughts he gave
this much consideration to his wife's affairs, but beyond
this point he would not permit them to pass.
His morning had been extremely full of business.
The evening before he had received a pamphlet, written
by a famous traveler, who had recently returned from
China and was now in Petersburg ; a note from the
Countess Lidya, accompanying it, begged him to receive
this traveler, who seemed likely to be, on many ac-
counts, a useful and interesting man. Aleksel Alek-
sandrovitch had not been able to get through the
pamphlet in the evening, and he finished it after break-
fast. Then came petitions, reports, visits, nominations,
removals, the distribution of rewards, pensions, salaries,
correspondence, all that " workaday labor," as Aleksef
Aleksandrovitch called it, which consumes so much
time.
Then came his private business, a visit from his phy-
sician and a call from his steward. The steward did not
stay very long. He only brought the money which
Aleksel Aleksandrovitch needed, and a brief report on
the condition of his affairs, which this year were not
very satisfactory, since it happened that in consequence
of various outlays there had been a heavy drain upon
him and there was a deficit.
But the doctor, who was a famous physician of
Petersburg, and had come into very friendly relations
ANNA KARENINA 265
with AlekseY Aleksandrovitch, took considerable time.
Aleksei Aleksandrovitch had not expected him that day
and was astonished at his visit, and still more so at the
scrupulous care with which he plied him with questions,
and sounded his lungs and punched and thumped his
liver ; Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch was not aware that his
friend, the Countess Lidya, troubled by his abnormal
condition, had begged the doctor to visit him and give
him a thorough examination.
" Do it for my sake," said the Countess Lidya Iva-
novna.
" I will do it for the sake of Russia, countess," replied
the doctor.
" Admirable man ! " cried the countess.
The doctor was very much disturbed at Aleksei
Aleksandrovitch's state. His liver was congested, his
digestion was bad ; the waters had done him no good.
He ordered more physical exercise, as little mental
strain as possible, and, above all, freedom from vexation
of spirit ; in other words, he ordered Aleksei' Aleksan-
drovitch to do what was as impossible for him as not to
breathe.
The doctor departed, leaving Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch
with the disagreeable impression that something was
very wrong with him, and that there was no help for it.
On the way out, the doctor met on Karenin's steps
his old acquaintance Sliudin, who was Alekse'f Alek-
sandrovitch's chief secretary. They had been in t'he
university together ; but, though they rarely met, they
were still excellent friends, and therefore to no one else
than Sliudin would the doctor have expressed his opinion
concerning the sick man so frankly.
" How glad I am that you have been to see him ! "
said Sliudin. " He is not well, and it seems to me .....
Well, what is it ? "
" I will tell you," said the doctor, nodding to his
coachman to drive up to the door. "This is what I
say;" and, taking with his white hand the fingers of
his dogskin glove, he stretched it out ; " try to break
a tough cord which is not stretched and it 's hard work ;
266 ANNA KARENINA
but keep it stretched out to its utmost tension, and
put the weight of your finger on it, it breaks. Now,
with his too sedentary life, and his too conscientious
labor, he is strained to the utmost limit ; and besides,
there is a violent pressure in another direction," con-
cluded the doctor, raising his eyebrows significantly.
" Shall you be at the races ? " he added, as he got into
his carriage.
" Yes, yes, certainly ; it takes a good deal of time,"
he said in reply to something that Sliudin said, and
which he did not catch.
Immediately after the departure of the doctor, who
had taken so much time, the celebrated traveler ap-
peared ; and Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, aided by the
pamphlet which he had just read, and by some pre-
vious information which he had on the subject, aston-
ished his visitor by the extent of his knowledge and
the breadth of his views.
At the same time the marshal ^ of nobility of his
government was announced, who had come to Peters-
burg and wanted to talk with him. After his departure
he was obliged to settle the routine business with his
chief secretary, and finally to go out and make a serious
and necessary call on an important personage.
Alekself Aleksandrovitch had only time to get back
to his five o'clock dinner with Sliudin, whom he in-
vited to join him on his visit to the country and to the
races.
Without exactly accounting for it, Aleksef Aleksan-
drovitch always endeavored lately to have a third per-
son present when he had an interview with his wife.
CHAPTER XXVII
Anna was in her room standing before a mirror and
fastening a final bow to her dress, with Annushka's aid,
when the noise of wheels on the gravel driveway was
heard.
^ Gubernsky Predvodityel.
ANNA KARENINA 267
" It is too early for Betsy," she thought ; and, looking
out of the window, she saw a carriage and in the car-
riage AlekseY Aleksandrovitch's black hat and well-
known ears.
"How provoking! Can he have come for the night ?"
she thought ; and all the consequences of his visit
seemed to her so terrible, so horrible, that without
taking time for a moment of reflection, she went down-
stairs, radiant with gayety, to receive her husband; and,
feeling in her the presence of the spirit of falsehood and
deception which now ruled her, she gave herself up to it
and spoke with her husband, not knowing what she said.
" Ah ! how good of you ! " said she, extending her
hand to Karenin, while she smiled on Sliudin as a
household friend.
" You 've come for the night, I hope .-' " were her first
words, inspired by the demon of untruth ; "and now we
will go to the races together. But how sorry I am that
I engaged to go with Betsy. She is coming for me."
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch frowned slightly at the name
of Betsy.
"Oh! I will not separate the inseparables," said he,
in his light jesting tone. "I will walk with Mikhad
Vasilyevitch. The doctor advised me to take exercise ;
I will join the pedestrians, and imagine I am still at
the Spa."
"There is no hurry," said Anna. "Will you have
some tea ? "
She rang.
" Serve the tea, and tell Serozha that Aleksei" Alek-
sandrovitch has come. — Well ! how is your health } —
Mikhail Vasilyevitch, you have not been out to see us
before ; look ! how pleasant it is on the balcony ! " said
she, looking now at her husband, now at her guest.
She spoke very simply and naturally, but too fast and
too fluently. She herself felt that it was so, especially
when she caught Mikhail Vasilyevitch looking at her with
curiosity and perceived that he was studying her.
Mikhail Vasilyevitch got up and went out on the
terrace, and she sat down beside her husband.
268 ANNA KARENINA
"You do not look at all well," said she.
" Oh, yes ! The doctor came this morning, and wasted
an hour of my time. I am convinced that some one of
my friends sent him. . My health is so precious ...."
'♦ No, what did he say ? "
And she questioned him about his health and his
labors, advising him to take rest, and to come out into
the country, where she was.
It was all said with gayety and animation, and with
brilliant light in her eyes, but Aleksef Aleksandrovitch
attached no special importance to her manner ; he heard
only her words, and took them in their literal significa-
tion. And he replied simply, though jestingly. The
conversation had no special weight, yet Anna never after-
ward could remember the whole short scene without the
keen agony of shame.
Serozha came in, accompanied by his governess. If
Alekself Aleksandrovitch had allowed himself to notice,
he would have been struck by the timid manner in
which the lad looked at his parents, — at his father
first, and then at his mother. But he was unwilling to
see anything, and he saw nothing.
"Ah, young man! He has grown. Indeed, he is
getting to be a great fellow ! Good-morning, young
man!"
And he stretched out his hand to the puzzled child.
Serozha had always been a little afraid of his father ;
but now, since Aleksef Aleksandrovitch had begun to
call him "young man," and since he had begun to rack
his brains to discover whether Vronsky were a friend or
an enemy, he was becoming more timid than ever. He
turned to his mother, as if for protection ; he felt at
ease only when with her. Meantime AlekseK Aleksan-
drovitch laid his hand on the boy's shoulder, and asked
his governess about him ; but the child was so painfully
shy of him that Anna saw he was going to cry.
Anna, who had flushed at the moment her son came
in, now noticing that it was awkward for him, quickly
jumped up, raised Aleksef Aleksandrovitch's hand to
let the boy go, kissed the little fellow, and took hira
ANNA KARENINA 269
out on the terrace. Then she came back to her husband
again.
" It is getting late," she said, consulting her watch.
" Why does n't Betsy come ? " ....
"Oh, yes," said Aleksel Aleksandrovitch, and as he
got up he joined his fingers and made them crack. " I
came also to bring you some money, for nightingales
don't live on songs," said he. " You need it, I sup-
pose .-' "
" No, I don't need it .... yes .... I do," said she, not look-
ing at him and blushing to the roots of her hair. " Well,
I suppose you will come back after the races ? "
"Oh, yes!" replied Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch. "But
here is the glory of Peterhof, the Princess Tverskaya,"
he added, looking out of the window at a magnificent
carriage with a short body set very high and with horses
harnessed in the English fashion, drawing up to the
entrance; "what elegance! splendid I well, let us go
too ! "
The Princess Tverskaya did not leave her carriage;
her lackey, in top-boots and pelerinka, or short cloak,
and wearing a tall hat, leaped to the steps.
" I am going, good-by," said Anna, and after she had
kissed her son, she went to Aleksei Aleksandrovitch
and gave him her hand. " It was very kind of you to
come."
AlekseY Aleksandrovitch kissed her hand.
" Well then, da svidanya I You will come back to
tea .'' Excellent ! " she said, as she went down the steps,
seeming radiant and happy.
But hardly had she passed from his sight before she
felt on her hand the place where his lips had kissed it,
and she shivered with repugnance.
270 ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER XXVIII
When Alekseif Aleksandrovitch reached the race-
course, Anna was already in her place beside Betsy, in
the grand pavilion, where all the highest society was
gathered in a brilliant throng. She saw her husband
from a distance. Two men, her husband and her lover,
were for her the two centers of life, and without the help
of her external senses she felt their presence. Even
when her husband was at a distance she was conscious
of his presence, and she involuntarily followed him in
that billowing throng in the midst of which he was
coming along. She saw him approach the pavilion, now
replying with condescension to ingratiating salutations,
then cordially or carelessly exchanging greetings with his
equals ; then again assiduously watching to catch the
glances of the great ones of the earth, and taking off
his large, round hat, which came down to the top of his
ears. Anna knew all these mannerisms of salutation,
and they were all equally distasteful to her.
" Nothing but ambition ; craze for success ; it is all
that his heart contains," she thought ; " but his lofty
views, his love for civilization, his religion, they are
only means whereby to win success."
From the glances that Karenin cast on the pavilion,
he was looking straight at his wife, but could not see
her in the sea of muslin, ribbons, feathers, flowers, and
sunshades — Anna knew he was looking for her, but
she pretended not to see him.
" Aleksef Aleksandrovitch," cried the Princess Betsy,
** don't you see your wife ? here she is ! "
He looked up with his icy smile.
" Everything is so brilliant here, that it blinds the
eyes," he replied, as he came up the pavilion.
He smiled at Anna, as it is a husband's duty to do
when he has only just left his wife, greeted Betsy and
his other acquaintances, conducting himself in due form,
in other words, jesting with the ladies, and exchanging
compliments with the men.
ANNA KARENINA 271
A general-adjutant, well known for his wit and culture,
and highly esteemed by AlekseY Aleksandrovitch, was
standing below near the pavilion. Aleksel Aleksan-
drovitch joined him, and engaged in conversation. It
was the interval between two of the races ; the general-
adjutant condemned racing. Aleksei" Aleksandrovitch
replied and defended them.
Anna heard his shrill, monotonous voice, and lost not
a single word ; and every word that he spoke seemed to
her hypocritical and rang unpleasantly in her ear.
When the four-verst handicap-race began, she leaned
forward, not letting Vronsky out of her sight for an
instant. She saw him approach his horse, then mount
it ; and at the same time she heard her husband's odious,
incessant voice. She was tormented with fear for Vron-
sky ; but she was tormented still more by the sound of
her husband's sharp voice, every intonation of which
she knew ; it seemed to her that he would never cease
speaking,
" I am a wicked woman, a lost woman," she thought ;
" but I hate falsehood, I cannot endure lies ; but to
him " — meaning her husband — *' lies are his daily food !
He knows all, he sees everything ; how much feeling
has he, if he can go on speaking with such calmness .-'
I should have some respect for him if he killed me, if
he killed Vronsky. But no ! what he prefers above
everything is falsehood and conventionality," said Anna
to herself, not exactly knowing what she wanted of her
husband, whatever she might want him to see. She
did not understand that the very volubility of Alekse'f
Aleksandrovitch, which irritated her so, was only the
expression of his interior agitation and anxiety.
As a child, hurt when jumping, puts its muscles into
motion to assuage the pain, so Aleksei Aleksandrovitch
absolutely required some intellectual movement, so as to
become oblivious to the thoughts about his wife that
arose in his mind at the sight of Anna and at the sight
of Vronsky, whose name he heard on all sides. And
as it is natural for a child to jump, so for him was it
natural to talk tersely and well.
272 ANNA KARENINA
" Danger," he was saying, " is an indispensable con
clition in these military and cavalry races. If England
can show in her history the most glorious deeds of arms
performed by her cavalry, she owes it solely to the his-
toric development of vigor in her people and her horses.
Sport, in my opinion, has a deep significance ; and, as
usual, we take it only in its superficial aspect."
" Not superficial," said the Princess Tverskaya ; " they
say that one of the officers has broken two ribs."
Alekself Aleksandrovitch smiled with his smile which
only uncovered his teeth and was perfectly expression-
less.
" Let us admit, princess," said he, "that in this case it
is not superficial, but serious.^ But that is not the
point ; " and he turned again to the general, and resumed
his dignified discourse : —
" You must not forget that those who take part are
military men who have chosen this career, and you must
agree that every vocation has its reverse side of the
medal. This belongs to the calling of war. Such
brutal sport as boxing-matches and Spanish bull-fights
are indications of barbarism, but specialized sport is a
sign of development."
" No, I won't come another time," the Princess
Betsy was saying ; " it is too exciting for me ; don't
you think so, Anna } "
" It is exciting, but it is fascinating," said another
lady ; " if I had been a Roman, I should never have
missed a single gladiatorial show."
Anna did not speak, but, with her opera-glass, was
gazing intently at a single spot.
At this moment a tall general came across the
pavilion. Aleksel Aleksandrovitch, breaking off his
discourse abruptly, arose with dignity, and made a
low bow.
" Are n't you racing .-' " asked the general, jestingly.
" My race is a far more difficult one," replied Aleksel
Aleksandrovitch, respectfully ; and though this answer
was not remarkable for its sense, the military man
1 Vnutrenneye, internal.
ANNA KARENINA 273
seemed to think that he had received a witty repartee
from a witty man, and appreciated la pointe de la
sauce.
"There are two sides to the question," AlekseY Alek-
sandrovitch said, resuming, — "that of the participants,
and that of the spectators ; and I confess that a love
for such spectacles is a genuine sign of inferiority in
those that look on, but .... "
"Princess, a wager," cried the voice of Stepan Ar-
kadyevitch from below, addressing Betsy. "Which
side will you take .'* "
" Anna and I bet on Prince Kuzovlef," replied Betsy.
" I am for Vronsky. A pair of gloves."
"Good!"
"How jolly! isn't it?"
Alekseif Aleksandrovitch stopped speaking while this
conversation was going on around him, and then he
began anew : —
" I confess, unmanly games .... "
But at this instant the signal of departure was heard,
and all conversation ceased. Aleksef Aleksandrovitch
also ceased speaking ; and every one stood up so as
to look at the "river." But Aleksef Aleksandrovitch
was not interested in the race, and so, instead of
watching the riders, looked around the assembly with
weary eyes. His gaze fell on his wife.
Her face was pale and stern. She evidently saw
nothing and no one — except one person. Her hands
convulsively clutched her fan ; she held her breath.
Karenin looked at her, then hastily turned away, gaz-
ing at the faces of other women.
" There is another lady very much moved, and still
another just the same ; it is very natural," said Aleksel
Aleksandrovitch to himself. He did not wish to look
at her ; but his gaze was irresistibly drawn to her face.
He once more gazed into her face, trying not to read
in it what was so plainly pictured on it, and against
his will he read, with feelings of horror, all that he
had tried to ignore.
When Kuzovlef fell at the " river," the excitement
VOL. I. — 18
274 ANNA KARENINA
was general ; but Alekseif Aleksandrovitch saw clearly
by Anna's pale, triumphant face that he that fell was
not the one on whom her gaze was riveted.
When, after Makhotin and Vronsky crossed the great
hurdle, another officer was thrown head first, and was
picked up for dead, a shudder of horror ran through
the assembly ; but Aleksef Aleksandrovitch perceived
that Anna did not even notice it, and scarcely knew
what the people around her were talking about.
But he kept studying her face, with deeper and
deeper attention. Anna, all absorbed as she was in
the spectacle of Vronsky's course, was conscious that
her husband's cold eyes were on her. She turned
around for an instant and looked at him questioningly.
Then with a slight frown she turned away.
" Akh ! it is all the same to me," she seemed to say,
as she turned her glass to the race. She did not look
at him again.
The race was disastrous ; out of the seventeen riders,
more than half were thrown and hurt. Toward the end
the excitement became intense, the more because the
emperor was displeased.
CHAPTER XXIX
All were loudly expressing their dissatisfaction, and
the phrase was going the rounds, " Now only the lions
are left in the arena ; " and when Vronsky fell, horror
was felt by all, and Anna groaned in dismay. In this
there was nothing extraordinary. But, from thence on,
a change which was positively improper had come over
her face, and she entirely lost her presence of mind.
She tried to escape, like a bird caught in a snare.
Thus she struggled to arise, and to get away ; and
then she cried to Betsy: —
" Come, let us go, let us go ! "
But Betsy did not hear her. She was leaning over,
engaged in lively conversation with a general who had
just entered the pavilion.
ANNA KARENINA 275
AlekseT Aleksandrovitch hastened to his wife, and
courteously offered her his arm.
" Come, if it is your wish to go," said he, in French ;
but Anna was listening eagerly to what the general
said, and paid no attention to her husband.
** He has broken his leg, they say ; but this is not
at all likely," said the general.
Anna did not look at her husband ; but, taking her
glass, she gazed at the place where Vronsky had
fallen. It was so distant, and the crowd was so dense,
that she could not make anything out of it. She
dropped her binocle, and started to go ; but at that
instant an officer came galloping up to make some
report to the emperor. Anna leaned forward, and
listened.
" Stiva ! Stiva ! " she cried to her brother.
He did not hear her.
She again made an effort to leave the pavilion.
" I again offer you my arm, if you wish to go," re-
peated Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, touching her hand.
Anna drew back from him with aversion, and replied
without looking at him : —
** No, no ; leave me ; I am going to stay."
She now saw an officer riding at full speed across the
race-course from the place of the accident to the pavilion.
Betsy beckoned to him with her handkerchief ; the offi-
cer brought the news that the rider was uninjured but
the horse had broken her back.
When she heard this, Anna quickly sat down, and hid
her face behind her fan. Aleksef Aleksandrovitch
noticed, not only that she was weeping, but that she
could not keep back the tears or even control the sobs
that heaved her bosom. He stepped in front of her to
shield her from the public gaze and give her a chance
to regain her self-command.
" For the third time I offer you my arm," said he,
turning to her at the end of a few moments.
Anna looked at him, not knowing what to say. The
Princess Betsy came to her aid.
" No, Aleksei Aleksandrovitch. I brought Anna, and
276 ANNA KARENINA
I will be responsible for bringing her home," said Betsy,
interfering.
" Excuse me, princess," he replied, politely smiling,
and looking her full in the face ; " but I see that she is
not well, and I wish her to go with me."
Anna looked round in terror, and, rising hastily, took
her husband's arm.
"I will send to inquire for him, and let you know,"
whispered Betsy.
As Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch left the pavilion with his
wife, he spoke in his ordinary manner to all whom he
met, and Anna was forced to listen and to reply as
usual ; but she was not herself, and as in a dream she
passed along on her husband's arm.
" Is he killed, or not ? Can it be true .-* Will he
come .'' Shall I see him to-day .-* " she asked herself.
In silence she got into AlekseY Aleksandrovitch's
carriage, and she sat in silence as they left the throng
of vehicles. In spite of all he had seen, Alekseif Alek-
sandrovitch did not allow himself to think of his wife's
present attitude. He saw only the external signs. He
saw that her deportment had been improper, and he felt
obliged to speak to her about it. But it was very diffi-
cult not to say more, — to say only that. He opened
his mouth to tell her how improperly she had behaved ;
but, in spite of himself, he said something absolutely
different.
"How strange that we all like to see these cruel
spectacles! I notice...."
" What ? I did not understand you," said Anna,
scornfully.
He was wounded, and instantly began to say what
was on his mind. .
" I am obliged to tell you ...." he began.
"Now," thought Anna, "comes the explanation ;" and
a terrible feeling came over her.
" I am obliged to tell you that your conduct to-day
has been extremely improper," said he, in French.
"Wherein has my conduct been improper .!*" she
demanded angrily, raising her head quickly, and look-
ANNA KARENINA 277
ing him straight in the eyes, no longer hiding her feel-
ings under a mask of gayety, but putting on a bold
front, under which, with difficulty, she hid her fears.
" Be careful," said he, pointing to the open window
behind the coachman's back.
He leaned forward and raised the pane.
"What impropriety did you remark?" she asked
again.
" The despair which you took no pains to conceal
when one of the riders was thrown."
He awaited her answer ; but she said nothing, and
looked straight ahead.
** I have already requested you so to behave when in
society that evil tongues cannot find anything to say
against you. There was a time when I spoke of your
inner feelings ; I now say nothing about them. Now I
speak only of outward appearances. You have behaved
improperly, and I would ask you not to let this happen
again."
She did not hear half of his words ; she felt over-
whelmed with fear ; and she thought only of Vronsky,
and whether he was killed. Was it he who was meant
when they said the rider was safe but the horse had
broken her back .-'
When Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch ceased speaking, she
looked at him with an ironical smile, and answered not
a word, because she had not noticed what he said. At
first he had spoken boldly ; but as he saw clearly what
he was speaking about, the terror which possessed her
seized him also. He noticed that smile of hers, and it
led him into a strange mistake.
" She is amused at my suspicions ! She is going to
tell me now what she once before said, that there is no
foundation for them, that this is absurd."
Now when the discovery of the whole thing hung
over him, he desired nothing so much as that she should
answer derisively as she had done before, that his sus-
picions were ridiculous and had no foundation. What
he now knew was so terrible to him that he was ready
to believe anything that she might say. But the ex'
278 ANNA KARENINA
pression of her gloomy and frightened face now allowed
him no further chance of falsehood.
"Possibly I am mistaken," said he; "in that case, I
beg you to forgive me."
"No, you are not mistaken," she replied, with meas-
ured words, casting a look of despair on her husband's
icy face. " You are not mistaken ; I was in despair,
and I could not help being. I hear you, but I am think-
ing only of him. I love him, I am his mistress. I can-
not endure you, I fear you, I hate you!.... Do with me
what you please ! "
And, throwing herself into a corner of the carriage,
she covered her face with her hands, and burst into tears.
AlekseY Aleksandrovitch did not move, or change the
direction of his eyes ; but his whole face suddenly as-
sumed the solemn rigidity of a corpse, and this expres-
sion remained unchanged throughout the drive to the
datcha. As they reached the house, he turned his head
to her still with the same expression.
" So ! but I insist on the preservation of appearances
until" — and here his voice trembled — "I decide on
the measures which I shall take to save my honor and
communicate them to you."
He stepped out of the carriage, and assisted Anna
out. Then, in presence of the domestics, he shook
hands with her, reentered the carriage, and drove back
to Petersburg.
He had just gone, when a lackey from Betsy brought
a note to Anna : —
" I sent to Alekser Vronsky to learn how he was.
He writes me that he is safe and sound, but in despair."
"Then he will come," she thought. "How well I
did to tell him all ! "
She looked at her watch ; scarcely three hours had
passed since she saw him, but the memory of their
interview made her heart hot within her.
"Bozhe molf! how light it is! It is terrible! but I
love to see his face, and I love this fantastic light
My husband ! oh ! yes ! ....well! thank God it is all over
with him 1 "
ANNA KARENINA 279
CHAPTER XXX
As in all places where human beings congregate, so
in the little German village where the Shcherbatskys
went to take the waters, there is formed a sort of social
crystallization which puts every one in his exact and un-
changeable place. Just as a drop of water exposed to
the cold always and invariably takes a certain crystalline
form, so each new individual coming to the Spa immedi-
ately finds himself fixed in the place peculiar to him.
" Fiirst Schtscherbatzsky sammt Gemahlin und Toch-
ter," — Prince Shcherbatsky, wife, and daughter, — both
by the apartments that they occupied, and by their name
and the acquaintances that they found, immediately
crystallized into the exact place that was predestined to
receive them.
This year a genuine German Furstin, or princess, was
at the Spa, and in consequence the crystallization of
society took place even more energetically than usual.
The Russian princess felt called on to present her
daughter to the German princess, and the ceremony
took place two days after their arrival. Kitty, dressed
in a very simple toilet, that is to say, a very elegant
summer costume imported from Paris, made a low and
graceful courtesy. The Furstin said : —
" I hope that the roses will soon bloom again in this
pretty little face."
And immediately the Shcherbatsky family found them-
selves in the fixed and definite walk in life from which
it was impossible to descend. They made the acquain-
tance of the family of an English Lady, of a German
Grdfin, and her son who had been wounded in the late
war, of a scientific man from Sweden, and of a M. Canut
and his sister.
But, for the most part, the Shcherbatskys spontane-
ously formed social relations among the people from
Moscow, among them Marya Yevgenyevna Rtishchevaya
and her daughter, whom Kitty did not like because she
likewise was ill on account of a love-affair, and a Mos
28o ANNA KARENINA
cow colonel whom she had seen in society since child-
hood, and known by his uniform and his epaulets, and
who now, with his little eyes, and his bare neck and
flowery cravats, seemed to Kitty supremely ridiculous,
and the more unendurable because she could not get rid
of him. When they were all established, it became very
tiresome to Kitty, the more as her father had gone to
Carlsbad, and she and her mother were left alone. She
could not interest herself in her old acquaintances, be-
cause she knew that she should not find anything novel
in them ; and so her principal arnusement was in study-
ing the people whom she had never seen before. It was
in accordance with Kitty's nature to see the best side
of people, especially of strangers ; and now, in making
her surmises about the persons whom she saw, — who
they were and what they were like and what relation-
ship they bore to one another, — she amused herself in
imagining the most wonderful and beautiful characters,
and found justification for her observations.
Of all these people, there was one in whom she took
a most lively interest : this was a young Russian girl
who had come to the baths with a sick Russian lady
named Madame Stahl. Madame Stahl belonged to the
high nobility ; but she was so ill that she could not
walk, and only occasionally, on very fine days, appeared
at the baths in a wheeled-chair. But it was rather from
pride than illness, as the princess judged, that she
failed to make any acquaintances among the Russians.
The girl was her nurse ; and, as Kitty remarked, she
frequently went to those who were seriously ill, — and
there were many at the baths, — and with the most
natural, unaffected zeal, took care of them.
This young Russian girl, Kitty discovered to her sur-
prise, was no relation to Madame Stahl, nor even a hired
companion. Madame Stahl called her simply Varenka,
but her friends called her " Mademoiselle Varenka."
Kitty not only found it extremely interesting to study
the relations between this young girl and Madame
Stahl, and other persons whom she did not know, but,
as often happens, she also felt an unaccountable sym-
ANNA KARENINA 281
pathy drawing her toward Mademoiselle Varenka ; and,
when their eyes met, she imagined that it pleased her also.
This Mademoiselle Varenka was not only no longer in
her first youth, but she seemed like a creature without
any youth ; her age might be guessed as either nineteen
or thirty. If one analyzed her features, she was rather
good-looking in spite of the sickly pallor of her face.
If her head had not been rather large, and her figure
too slight, she would have been considered handsome ;
but she was not one to please men ; she made one think
of a beautiful flower, which, though still preserving its
petals, was faded and without perfume. There was one
other reason why she could not be attractive to men,
and that was the fact that she lacked exactly what Kitty
had in excess — the repressed fire of life and a con-
sciousness of her fascination.
Varenka seemed always absorbed in some important
work ; and therefore it seemed she could not take any
interest in anything irrelevant. It was this very con-
trast to herself that especially attracted Kitty to her.
Kitty felt that in her and in her mode of life she might
find what she was seeking with so much trouble, — an
interest in life, the dignity of life outside of the social
relationships of young women to young men, which
now seemed to Kitty like an ignominious exposure of
merchandise waiting for a purchaser. The more she
studied her unknown friend, the more convinced she
became that this girl was the most perfect creature
which she could imagine and the more she longed to
become acquainted with her.
The two girls passed each other many times every
day ; and every time they met Kitty's eyes seemed
always to ask : " Who are you ? What are you ? Are
you not, in truth, the charming person that I imagine
you to be ? But for Heaven's sake," the look seemed
to add, "don't think that I would permit myself to
demand your acquaintance ! I simply admire you, and
love you."
" I also love you, and you are very, very charming ;
and I would love you still better, if I had time," replied
282 ANNA KARENINA
the unknown maiden's look ; and indeed Kitty saw that
she was always busy. Either she was taking the chil-
dren of a Russian family home from the baths, or carry-
ing a plaid for an invalid and wrapping her up in it,
or she was trying to divert some irritable sick man, or
selecting and buying confections for some other sick
persons.
One morning, soon after the arrival of the Shcher-
batskys, two new persons appeared who immediately
became the object of rather unfriendly criticism. The
one was a very tall, stooping man, with enormous hands,
black eyes, at once innocent and terrifying, and wearing
an old, ill-fitting, short coat. The other was a pock-
marked woman, with a kindly face, and dressed very
badly and inartistically.
Kitty instantly recognized that they were Russians ;
and in her imagination set to work constructing a
beautiful and touching romance about them. But the
princess, learning by the kurliste, or list of arrivals,
that this was Nikolai Levin and Marya Nikolayevna,
explained to her what a bad man this Levin was, and
all her illusions about these two persons vanished.
The fact that he was Konstantin Levin's brother,
even more than her mother's words, suddenly made
these two people particularly repulsive to Kitty. This
Levin, with his habit of twitching his head, aroused in
her an unsurmountable feeling of repulsion. It seemed
to her that in his great, wild eyes, as they persistently
followed her, was expressed a sentiment of hatred and
irony, and she tried to avoid meeting hint
CHAPTER XXXI
It was a stormy day ; the rain fell all the morning,
and the invalids with umbrellas thronged the gallery.
Kitty and her mother, accompanied by the Muscovite
colonel playing the elegant in his European overcoat,
bought ready-made in Frankfort, were walking on one
side of the gallery, in order to avoid Nikolaif Levin, who
ANNA KARENINA 283
was on the other. Varenka, in her dark dress and a
black hat with the brim turned down, was walking up
and down the whole length of the gallery with a little
blind French woman ; each time that she and Kitty
met, they exchanged friendly glances.
" Mamma, may I speak with her .-' " asked Kitty, as
she happened to be following her unknown friend and
noticed that she was approaching the spring, where they
might meet.
" Yes, if you wish it so much. I will inquire about
her, and make her acquaintance first," said her mother.
" But what do you find especially interesting in her }
She is only a lady's companion. If you like, I can
speak to Madame Stahl. I knew her belle-sceur,'' added
the princess, proudly raising her head.
Kitty knew that her mother was vexed because
Madame Stahl seemed to avoid making her acquain-
tance, and she did not press the point.
" How wonderfully charming she is! " said she, as she
saw Varenka give the blind French lady a glass. " See
how lovely and gentle everything is that she does."
" You amuse me with your engouements," replied the
princess. " No, we had better go back," she added, as
she saw Levin approaching with Marya and a German
doctor, with whom he was speaking in a loud and angry
tone.
As they turned to go back, suddenly they heard, not loud
voices, but a cry. Levin had stopped, and was shriek-
ing. The doctor was also angry. A crowd was gather-
ing around them. The princess and Kitty hurried away,
but the colonel joined the throng to find out what the
trouble was. After a few moments the colonel came
back to them.
" What was it .-* " asked the princess.
" It is a shame and a disgrace," replied the colonel.
"There 's only one thing you need to fear, and that is to
meet with Russians abroad. This tall gentleman was
quarreling with his doctor, heaped indignities upon him
for not attending to him as he wished, and finally he
threatened him with his cane. It is simply disgraceful."
284 ANNA KARENINA
*' Akh ! how unpleasant ! " said the princess. " Well,
how did it end ? "
" Fortunately that .... that girl with a hat like a toad-
stool interfered. A Russian, it seems," said the colonel.
" Mademoiselle Varenka .'' " joyously exclaimed Kitty.
" Yes, yes ! She went quicker than any one else, and
took the gentleman by the arm, and led him off."
"There, mamma!" said Kitty, "and you wonder at
my enthusiasm for Varenka ! "
The next morning Kitty, watching her unknown
friend, noticed that Mademoiselle Varenka had the
same relations with Levin and Marya as with her other
proteges: she joined them and talked with them, and
acted as interpreter to the woman, who did not know
any language besides her own.
Kitty again begged her mother even more urgently
to let her become acquainted with Varenka ; and though
it was unpleasant to the princess to seem to be making
advances to the haughty and exclusive Madame Stahl,
she made some inquiries about Varenka, and learning
enough to satisfy herself that there was no possible
harm, though very little that was advantageous, in the
proposed acquaintance, she went first to Varenka and
introduced herself.
Choosing a time when Kitty was at the spring, and
Varenka was opposite the baker's, the princess went up
to her.
"Allow me to introduce myself," said she, with her
dignified smile. " My daughter has taken a great fancy
to you. But perhaps you do not know me. I...."
" It is more than reciprocal, princess," replied Varenka,
quickly,
"What a good thing you did yesterday toward our
wretched fellow-countryman," said the princess.
Varenka blushed.
" I do not remember," she replied. " I don't think I
did anything."
" Yes, indeed ! you saved this Levin from an unpleasant
aflfair."
" Ah, yes ! sa compagne called me, and I tried to calm
ANNA KARENINA 285
him ; he is very sick, and dissatisfied with his doctor.
I am quite used to this kind of invalids."
" Oh, yes. I have heard that you live at Mentone
with your aunt, Madame Stahl. I used to know her
belle-soeur.'^
" No, Madame Stahl is not my aunt. I call her
maman, but I am no relation to her. I was brought up
by her," replied Varenka, again blushing.
All this was said with perfect simplicity ; and the
expression of her pleasing face was so frank and sin-
cere, that the princess began to understand why Kitty
was so charmed by this Varenka.
" Well, what is this Levin going to do ? " she asked.
"He is going away."
At this moment, Kitty, radiant with pleasure because
her mother had made the acquaintance of her unknown
friend, came in from the spring.
" See here ! Kitty, your ardent desire to know Made-
moiselle.,.."
" Varenka," said the girl, smiling. " Every one calls
me so."
Kitty was flushed with delight, and without speaking
long pressed her new friend's hand, which gave no an-
swering pressure, but lay passive in hers. Her hand
gave no answering pressure, but Mademoiselle Varenka's
face shone with a quiet, joyous, though melancholy smile,
which showed her large but handsome teeth.
" I have been longing to know you," she said.
" But you are so busy...,"
•' Oh ! on the contrary, I have n't anything to do,"
replied Varenka; but at the same instant she had to
leave her new acquaintances because two little Russian
girls, the daughters of an invalid, ran to her.
"Varenka, mamma is calling," they cried.
And Varenka followed them.
286 ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER XXXII
The particulars which the princess learned about
Varenka's past life, and her relations with Madame
Stahl, and about Madame Stahl herself, were as fol-
lows : —
Madame Stahl had always been a sickly and excitable
woman, who was said by some to have tormented the
life out of her husband, and by others to have been tor-
mented by his unnatural behavior. After she was
divorced from her husband, she gave birth to her first
child, which did not live ; and Madame Stahl's parents,
knowing her sensitiveness, and fearing that the shock
would kill her, substituted for the dead child the
daughter of a court cook, born on the same night, and
in the same house at Petersburg. This was Varenka.
Madame Stahl afterwards learned that the child was
not her own, but continued to take charge of her, the
more willingly as the true parents shortly after died.
For more than ten years Madame Stahl lived abroad,
in the South, never leaving her bed. Some said that
she was a woman who had made a public show of her
piety and good works ; others said that she was at heart
the most highly moral of women, and that she lived only
for the good of her neighbor, that she was really what
she pretended to be.
No one knew whether she was Catholic, Protestant,
or orthodox ; one thing alone was certain, — that she had
friendly relations with the high dignitaries of all the
churches and of all communions.
Varenka always lived with Madame Stahl abroad ;
and all who knew Madame Stahl knew Mademoiselle
Varenka also, and loved her. When she had learned
all the particulars, the princess found nothing objection-
able in her daughter's acquaintance with Varenka ; the
more because Varenka had the most cultivated manners
and a fine education ; she spoke French and English
admirably, and chief of all she brought from Ma-
dame Stahl her regrets that, owing to her illness, she
ANNA KARENINA 287
was deprived of the pleasure of making the princess's
acquaintance.
After she had once made Varenka's acquaintance,
Kitty became more and more attached to her friend,
and each day discovered some new charm in her. The
princess, having discovered that Varenka sang well, in-
vited her to come and give them an evening of music.
" Kitty plays, and we have a piano ; not a very good in-
strument, to be sure, but you would give us a great pleas-
ure," said the princess, with her hypocritical smile which
was displeasing to Kitty, especially as she knew that
Varenka did not want to sing. But Varenka came, that
same evening, and brought her music. The princess
had invited Marya Yevgenyevna and her daughter, and
the colonel.
Varenka seemed perfectly indifferent to the presence
of these people, who were strangers to her, and she went
to the piano without being urged. She could not ac-
company herself, but in singing she read the notes per-
fectly. Kitty, who played very well, accompanied her.
"You have a remarkable talent," said the princess,
after the first song, which Varenka sang beautifully.
Marya Yevgenyevna and her daughter added their
compliments and their thanks.
" See," said the colonel, looking out of the window,
"what an audience you have attracted."
In fact, a large number of people had gathered in
front of the house.
" I am very glad to have given you pleasure," said
Varenka, without affectation.
Kitty looked at her friend proudly ; she admired her
art and her voice and her face, and, more than all, she
was enthusiastic over the way in which Varenka made
it evident that she took little account of her singing,
and was perfectly indifferent to compliments. She
simply seemed to say, " Shall I sing some more, or is
that enough ? "
" If I were in her place, how proud I should be ! How
happy I should be to see that crowd under the window !
But she seems perfectly unconscious of it. All that
188 ANNA KARENINA
she seemed to want was not to refuse, but to please
maman. What is there about her ? What is it that
gives her this power of indifference, this calmness and
independence ? How I should like to learn this of her! "
thought Kitty, as she looked into her peaceful face.
The princess asked Varenka to sing again ; and she
sang this time as well as the first, with the same care
and the same perfection, standing erect near the piano,
and beating time with her thin brown hand.
The next piece in her music-roll was an Italian aria.
Kitty played the introduction, and looked at Varenka.
" Let us not do that one," said she, blushing.
Kitty, in alarm and wonder, fixed her eyes on Varenka's
face.
"Well! another one," she said, hastily turning the
pages, and somehow feeling an intuition that the Italian
song brought back to her friend some painful association.
" No," replied Varenka, putting her hand on the notes
and smiling, "let us sing this." And she sang it as
calmly and coolly as the one before.
After the singing was over, they all thanked her
again, and went out into the dining-room to drink tea.
Kitty and Varenka went down into the little garden
next the house.
"You had some association with that song, did you
not.?" asked Kitty. "You need not tell me about it,"
she hastened to add ; "simply say, ' Yes, I have.' "
" Why should I not tell you about it } Yes, there is
an association," said Varenka, calmly, and not waiting
for Kitty to say anything, "and it is a painful one, I
once loved a man, and used to sing that piece to him."
Kitty with wide-open eyes looked at Varenka meekly,,
but did not speak.
"I loved him, and he loved me also; but his mother
was unwilling, and he married some one else. He does
not live very far from us now, and I sometimes see him.
You did n't think that I also had my romance, did you ? "
And her face lighted up with a rare beauty, and a
fire such as Kitty imagined might have been habitual
in other days.
ANNA KARENINA 289
" Why should n't I have thought so ? If I were a
man I could never have loved any one else after know-
ing you," said Kitty. " What I cannot conceive is, that
he was able to forget you, and make you unhappy for
the sake of obeying his mother. He could n't have had
any heart."
" Oh, no, he was an excellent man ; and I am not un-
happy ; on the contrary, I am very happy Well, shall
we sing anymore this evening?" she added, starting
to go toward the house.
" How good you are ! how good you are ! " cried
Kitty, and stopping her, she kissed her, " If I could
only be a bit like you ! "
" Why should you resemble any one else besides your-
self .'* You are a good girl as you are," said Varenka,
with her sweet and melancholy smile.
"No, I am not good at all. Now, tell me.... Stay,
stay ; let us sit down a little while," said Kitty, draw-
ing her down to a settee near by. " Tell me how it can
be other than a pain to think of a man who has scorned
your love, who has jilted you...."
*' But no, he did not scorn it at all ; I am sure that he
loved me. But he was a dutiful son, and...."
" Yes, but suppose it had not been for his mother's
sake, but simply of his own free will," said Kitty, feeling
that she was betraying her secret, and her face, glowing
red with mortification, convicted her.
" Then he would not have behaved honorably, and I
should not mourn for him," replied Varenka, perceiving
that the supposition concerned, not herself, but Kitty.
"But the insult ! " cried Kitty. "One cannot forget
the insult. It is impossible," said she, remembering her
own look when the music stopped at the last ball.
" Whose insult ? You did n't act badly.?"
" Worse than badly, — shamefully ! "
Varenka shook her head, and laid her hand on Kitty's.
" Well, but why shamefully .-* " she asked. " You
surely did not tell a man who showed indifference to
you that you loved him ? " ri
" Certainly not ; I never uttered a word. But he
VOL. I. — 19
290 ANNA KARENINA
knew it. There are looks, there are ways .... no, no!
not if I lived a hundred years should I ever forget it."
" Now, what is it ? I don't understand you. The
question is solely this : do you love him now or not .<' "
said Varenka, who liked to call things by their right
names.
" I hate him. I cannot forgive myself."
"But what for.?"
"The shame, the insult."
" Akh ! if every one were as sensitive as you ! There
is never a young girl who does not sometimes feel the
same way. It is all such a trifling thing ! "
"But what, then, is important.?" asked Kitty, look-
ing at Varenka with astonishment and curiosity.
" Oh ! many things are important," replied Varenka,
with a smile.
" Yes ; but what ? "
" Oh ! there are many things more important," re-
plied Varenka, not knowing what to say ; but at that
moment the voice of the princess was heard from the
window : —
" Kitty, it is getting cool ; put on your shawl, or
come in."
"It is time to go," said Varenka, getting up. "I
must go and see Madame Berthe ; she asked me to
come."
Kitty held her by the hand, and her eyes, full of
passionate, almost supplicating, curiosity, asked her: —
" What is it that is so important that can give such
calm } You know ; tell me."
But Varenka did not understand the meaning of
Kitty's look. She remembered only that she had still
to go to see Madame Berthe, and to get home at mid-
night for tea with manian. She went back to the
room, picked up her music, and, having said good-night
to all, started to go.
" Allow me ; I will escort you," said the colonel.
"Certainly," said the princess. "How could you go
home alone at night } I was going to send Parasha
with you."
ANNA KARENINA 1291
Kitty saw that Varenka could hardly keep from smil-
ing at the idea that she needed any one to go home
with her.
" No ; I always go home alone, and nothing ever
happens to me," said she, taking her hat, and after
kissing Kitty again, though she did not tell her " the
one important thing," she hurried away with firm steps,
her music-roll under her arm, and disappeared in the
semi-darkness of the summer night, carrying with her
her secret of " what is important " and what gave her
her enviable calmness and dignity.
CHAPTER XXXIII
Kitty also made Madame Stahl's acquaintance, and
her relations with this lady and her friendship with
Varenka had rrot only a powerful influence on her, but
also soothed her grief.
She found this consolation in the fact that, through
this friendship, there opened before her an entirely new
world, which had nothing in common with her past, —
a beautiful, supernal world, from the lofty heights of
which she could look down calmly on her past. She
discovered that this world, which was entirely apart
from the instinctive life which she had hitherto led,
was the spiritual life. This life was reached by re-
ligion, — a religion which had nothing in common with
the religion to which Kitty had been accustomed since
infancy, a religion which consisted of going to morn-
ing and evening service, and to the House of Widows,^
where she met her acquaintances, or of learning by
heart Slavonic texts with the parish priest. This was
a lofty, mystic religion, united with the purest thoughts
and feelings, and believed in not because one was com-
manded to do so, but through love.
Kitty learned all this, but not by words. Madame
Stahl talked to her as to a dear child whom she loved
as the type of her own youth, and only once did she
^ Vdovui Dom
292
ANNA KARENINA
make any allusion to the consolation brought by faith
and love for human sorrows, and to the compassion
of Christ, who looked on no sorrows as insignificant ;
and she immediately changed the subject.
But in all this lady's motions, in her words, in her
heavenly looks, as Kitty called them, and, above all,
in the story of her life, which she knew through Va-
renka, Kitty discovered "the important thing" which
till now had been but a sealed book to her.
But, lofty as Madame Stahl's character was, touch-
ing as was her history, high-minded and affectionate
her discourse, Kitty could not help noticing certain
peculiarities, which troubled her. One day, for ex-
ample, when her relatives were mentioned, Madame
Stahl smiled disdainfully ; it was contrary to Christian
charity. Another time Kitty noticed, when she met
a Roman Catholic dignitary calling on her, that Madame
Stahl kept her face carefully shaded by the curtain, and
smiled peculiarly. Insignificant as these two incidents
were, they gave her some pain, and caused her to doubt
Madame Stahl's sincerity.
Varenka, on the other hand, alone in the world, with-
out family connections, without friends, hoping for
naught, harboring no ill-will after her bitter disap-
pointment, seemed to her absolute perfection. Through
Varenka she learned how to forget herself, and to love
her neighbor, if she wanted to be happy, calm, and
good. And Kitty did wish this. And, when once
she learned what was the important thing, Kitty was
no longer willing simply to admire, but gave herself
up with her whole heart to the new life which opened
before her. After the stories which Varenka told her
of Madame Stahl and others whom she named, Kitty
drew up a plan for her coming life. She decided that,
following the example of Aline, Madame Stahl's niece,
whom Varenka often told her about, she would visit
the unhappy, no matter where she might be living,
and that she would aid them to the best of her ability ;
that she would distribute the Gospel, read the New
Testament to the sick, to the dying, to criminals : the
ANNA KARENINA 293
thought of reading the New Testament to criminals,
as this Aline 'had done, especially appealed to Kitty.
But she indulged in these dreams secretly, without
telling them to her mother or even to her friend.
However, while she was waiting to be able to carry
out her schemes on a wider scale, it was easy for Kitty
to put her new principles in practice at the waters,
even then and there at the Spa, where the sick and
unhappy are easily found, and she did as Varenka did.
The princess swiftly noticed that Kitty had fallen
under the powerful influence of her engoiiement with
Madame Stahl (as she called it), and particularly with
Varenka. She saw that Kitty imitated Varenka, not
only in her deeds of charity, but even in her gait, in her
speech, in her ways of shutting her eyes. Later she
discovered that her daughter was passing through a sort
of crisis of the soul quite independent of the influence
of her friends.
The princess saw that Kitty was reading the Gospels
evenings in a French Testament loaned her by Madame
Stahl, — a thing which she had never done before.
She also noticed that she avoided her society friends,
and gave her time to the sick under Varenka's care, and
particularly to the poor family of a sick painter named
Petrof.
Kitty seemed proud to fill, in this household, the
functions of a sister of charity. All this was very
good ; and the princess had no fault to find with it, and
opposed it all the less from the fact that Petrof's wife
was a woman of good family, and that one day the
Filvstin, noticing Kitty's charitable activity, had praised
her, and called her the " ministering angel." All would
have been very good if it had not been carried to ex-
cess. But the princess saw that her daughter was going
to extremes, so she spoke to her about it.
"// ne faut rien outrer — One must never go to ex-
tremes," she said to her.
But her daughter made no reply ; she only questioned
from the bottom of her heart whether one could ever
talk about going to extremes in the matter of religion.
294 ANNA KARENINA
How could there be any possibility of extremes in follow-
ing teachings which bid you offer your left cheek when
the right has been struck, and to give your shirt when
your cloak is taken from you ? But the princess was
displeased with this tendency to exaggeration, and she
was still more displeased to feel that Kitty was unwill-
ing to open her heart to her. In point of fact, Kitty
kept secret from her mother her new views and feelings.
She kept them secret, not because she lacked affection
or respect for her mother, but simply because she was
her mother. It would have been easier to confess them
to a stranger than to her mother.
" It is a long time since Anna Pavlovna has been to
see us," said the princess one day, speaking of Madame
Petrof. " I invited her to come, but she seems of-
fended."
"No, I don't think so, maman," reiplied Kitty, with a
guilty look.
" You have not been with her lately, have you .'' "
•' We planned a walk on the mountain for to-morrow,"
said Kitty.
"I see no objection," replied the princess, noticing
her daughter's confusion, and trying to fathom the
reason.
That same day Varenka came to dinner and an-
nounced that Anna Pavlovna had given up the proposed
expedition. The princess noticed that Kitty again
blushed.
" Kitty, has there been anything unpleasant between
you and the Petrofs } " she asked, as soon as they were
alone. " Why have they ceased to send their children,
or to come themselves .■* "
Kitty replied that nothing had happened, and that she
really did not understand why Anna Pavlovna seemed
to be angry with her ; and she told the truth. She did
not know the reasons for the change in Madame Petrof,
but she suspected them, and thus also she suspected a
thing which she dared not to confess, even to herself,
still less to her mother. This was one of those things
which you know, but which are impossible to speak even
ANNA KARENINA 295
to yourself, so humiliating and painful would it be if
you are mistaken.
Again and again she passed in review all the mem-
ories of her relations with this family. She remembered
the innocent joy which shone on Anna Pavlovna's
honest, round face when they first met ; she remembered
their secret discussions to find means to distract the
invalid, and keep him from the forbidden work, and to
get him out of doors ; the attachment of the youngest
child, who called her Moya Kiti, and would not go to
bed without her. How beautiful everything was at that
time ! Then she remembered Petrof's thin face, his
long neck, stretching out from his brown coat ; his thin,
curly hair ; his blue eyes, with their questioning look,
which she had feared at first ; his painful efforts to seem
lively and energetic when she was near ; she recalled
the effort that she had to make at first to overcome the
repugnance which he, as well as all consumptives, caused
her to feel ; and the trouble which she had in finding
something to talk with him about.
She remembered the sick man's humble and timid looks
when he saw her, and the strange feeling of compassion
and awkwardness which came over her at first, followed
by the pleasant consciousness of her charitable deeds.
How lovely it all had been ! but it lasted only for a
brief moment. Now and for several days there had
been a sudden change. Anna Pavlovna received Kitty
with pretended friendliness, and did not cease to watch
her and her husband.
Could it be that the invalid's pathetic joy at the sight
of her was the cause of Anna- Pavlovna's coolness .-'
"Yes," she said to herself, "there was something
unnatural and quite different from her ordinary sweet
temper when she said to me, day before yesterday,
sharply, 'There! he will not do anything without you;
he would not even take his coffee, though he was awfully
faint.'
" Yes ! perhaps it was not agreeable to her when I
gave him his plaid. It was such a simple little thing to
do ; but he seemed so strange, and thanked me so warmly,
296 ANNA KARENINA
that I felt ill at ease. And then that portrait of me
which he painted so well ; but, above all, his gentle and
melancholy look. Yes, yes, it must be so," Kitty re-
peated with horror. " No, it cannot be, it must not be !
He is to be pitied so ! " she added, in her secret heart.
This suspicion poisoned the pleasure of her new life.
CHAPTER XXXIV
Just before their season at the Spa was over. Prince
Shcherbatsky rejoined them. He had been to Carlsbad,
to Baden, and to Kissingen, with Russian friends, — " to
get a breath of Russian air," as he expressed it.
The prince and princess had conflicting ideas in re-
gard to living abroad. The princess thought that every-
thing was lovely ; and, notwithstanding her assured posi-
tion in Russian society, while she was abroad she put
on the airs of a European lady which she was not, for
she was in every way a genuine Russian baruinya. The
prince, on the other hand, considered everything abroad
detestable, and the European life unendurable ; and he
even exaggerated his Russian characteristics, and tried
to be less of a European than he really was.
He came back emaciated and with drooping sacks
under his eyes, but in the happiest spirits ; and his
happy frame of mind was still further enhanced when
he found that Kitty was on the road to health.
The accounts that he heard of Kitty's intimacy with
Madame Stahl and Varenka, and the princess's de-
scription of the moral transformation through which his
daughter was passing, rather vexed the prince, awaking
in him that feeling of jealousy which he always had in
regard to everything that might draw Kitty away from
under his influence. He was afraid that she might
ascend to regions unattainable to him. But these dis-
agreeable presentiments were swallowed up in the sea
of gayety and good humor which he always carried with
him, and which his sojourn at Carlsbad had increased.
The day after his arrival, the prince, in his long pale-
ANNA KARENINA 297
tot, and with his Russian wrinkles and his puffy cheeks
standing out above his stiffly starched collar, went in
the very best of spirits with Kitty to the spring.
The morning was beautiful. The neat, gay houses,
with their little gardens, the sight of the German ser-
vants, with their red faces and red arms, happily work-
ing, the brilliant sun, — everything filled the heart with
pleasure. But as they came nearer to the spring they
met more and more invalids, whose lamentable appear-
ance contrasted painfully with the trim and beneficent
German surroundings.
For Kitty the bright sunlight, the vivid green of the
trees, the sounds of the music, all formed a natural
framework for these well-known faces, whose changes
for better or worse she had been watching. But for
the prince there was something cruel in the contrast
between this bright June morning, the orchestra play-
ing the latest waltz, and especially the sight of these
healthy-looking servants, and the miserable invalids,
from all the corners of Europe, dragging themselves
painfully along.
In spite of the return of his youth which the prince
experienced, and the pride that he felt in having his
favorite daughter on his arm, he confessed to a sense
of shame and awkwardness in walking along with his
firm step and his vigorous limbs,
'* Introduce me, introduce me to your new friends,"
said he to his daughter, pressing her arm with his elbow.
" I am beginning to like your abominable Soden for the
good which it has done you. Only it is melancholy for
you. — Who is this ? "
Kitty told the names of the acquaintances and
strangers that they met on their way. At the very
entrance of the garden they met Madame Berthe and
her companion, and the prince was pleased to see the
expression of joy on the old Frenchwoman's face at
the sound of Kitty's voice. With true French exagger-
ation she immediately overwhelmed the prince with
compliments, congratulating him on having such a
charming daughter, whose merits she praised to the
298 ANNA KARENINA
skies, declaring to her face that she was a treasure, a
pearl, a ministering angel.
"Well! she must be angel number two," said the
prince, gallantly, "for she calls Mademoiselle Varenka
angel number one."
" Oh ! Mademoiselle Varenka is truly an angel.
Allez" said Madame Berthe, vivaciously.
They met Varenka herself in the gallery. She
hastened up to them, carrying an elegant red bag.
" Here is papa," said Kitty.
Varenka made the prince a simple and natural saluta-
tion, almost like a courtesy, and without any false
modesty immediately entered into conversation with
him as she conversed with every one, without restraint
or affectation.
"Of course I know you, — know you very well al-
ready," said the prince, with a pleasant expression that
made Kitty see that her friend pleased her father.
" Where were you going so fast ? "
" Maman is here," she replied, turning to Kitty.
"She did not sleep all night, and the doctor advised her
to take the air. I have brought her work,"
" So that is angel number one } " said the prince,
when Varenka had gone.
Kitty saw that he had intended to rally her about her
friend, but had refrained because her friend had pleased
him. "Well, let us go and see them all," said he, —
" all your friends, even Madame Stahl, if she will deign
to remember me."
"But did you ever know her, papa.-*" asked Kitty,
with fear, as she saw an ironical flash in her father's
eyes as he mentioned Madame Stahl.
" I knew her husband, and I knew her a little, before
she joined the Pietists."
" What are Pietists, papa 1 " asked Kitty, troubled
because such a nickname was given to what in Madame
Stahl she valued so highly.
" I myself do not know much about them. I only
know_ this, that she thanks God for everything, even
for her tribulations, and, above all, she thanks God
ANNA KARENINA 299
because her husband is dead. Now, that is comical,
because they did not live happily together. But who is
that .'' What a melancholy face ! " he added, seeing an
invalid sitting in a shop in cinnamon-colored paletot,
with white pantaloons making strange folds around his
emaciated legs. This gentleman had raised his straw
hat, and bared his sparse curly hair and high sickly
forehead, on which showed the red line made by the
brim.
"That is Petrof, a painter," replied Kitty, with a
blush ; " and there is his wife," she added, indicating
Anna Pavlovna, who, at their approach, had evidently
made the excuse of running after one of their children
playing in the street.
" Poor fellow ! and what a pleasant face he has ! "
said the prince. "But why did you not go to him .-^ He
seemed anxious to speak to you."
"Well, let us go back to him," said Kitty, resolutely
turning about. " PJow do you feel to-day ? " she asked
of Petrof.
Petrof arose, leaning on his cane, and looked timidly
at the prince.
"This is my daughter," said the prince; "allow me
to make your acquaintance."
The painter bowed and smiled, showing teeth of
strangely dazzling whiteness.
"We expected you yesterday, princess," said he to
Kitty.
He staggered as he spoke ; and to conceal the fact
that it was involuntary, he repeated the motion.
" I expected to come, but Varenka told me that Anna
Pavlovna sent word that you were not going."
" That we were n't going } " said Petrof, troubled, and
beginning to cough. Then, looking toward his wife, he
called hoarsely, " Annetta ! Annetta ! " while the great
veins on his thin white neck stood out like cords.
Anna Pavlovna drew near.
" How did you send word to the princess that we
were not going ? " he demanded angrily, in a whisper.
" Good-morning, princess," said Anna Pavlovna, with
300
ANNA KARENINA
a constrained smile, totally different from her former
effusiveness. "Very glad to make your acquaintance,"
she added, addressing the prince. " You have been
long expected, prince."
" How could you have sent word to the princess that
we were not going ? " again demanded the painter, in his
hoarse whisper, and still more irritated because he could
not express himself as he wished.
" Oh, good heavens ! I thought that we were not
going," said his wife, testily.
" How."*.... when .? " ....
He coughed, and made a gesture of despair with his
hand.
The prince raised his hat, and went away with his
daughter.
" Oh ! okh !" he said, with a deep sigh. " Oh, these
poor creatures ! "
"Yes, papa," said Kitty; "and you must know that
they have three children, and no servant, and almost no
means. He receives a pittance from the Academy,"
she continued eagerly, so as to conceal the emotion
caused by the strange change in Anna Pavlovna, in
her behavior to her. "Ah, there is Madame Stahl ! "
said Kitty, directing his attention to a wheeled-chair, in
which was lying a human form, wrapped in gray and
blue, propped up by pillows, and shaded by an umbrella.
It was Madame Stahl. A solemn and sturdy German
laborer was pushing her chair. Beside her walked a light-
complexioned Swedish count, whom Kitty knew by sight.
Several people had stopped near the wheeled-chair, and
were gazing at this lady as if she were some curiosity.
The prince approached her, and Kitty instantly noticed
in her father's eyes that ironical gleam which had
troubled her before. He went up to Madame Stahl,
and addressed her in that excellent French which so
few Russians nowadays are able to speak, and was ex-
tremely polite and friendly.
"I do not know whether you still recollect me, but
it is my duty to bring myself to your remembrance, in
order that I may thank you for your kindness to my
ANNA KARENINA joi
daughter," said he, taking off his hat, and holding it
in his hand.
"Prince Aleksandr Shcherbatsky ! " said Madame
Stahl, looking at him with her heavenly eyes, in which
Kitty detected a shade of dissatisfaction. " I am very
glad to see you ; I love your daughter so ! "
" Your health is not always good .'' "
" Oh ! I am pretty well used to it now," replied
Madame Stahl ; and she presented the prince to the
Swedish count.
" You have changed very little," said the prince to
her, "during the ten or twelve years since I had the
honor of seeing you."
" Yes. God gives the cross, and gives also the power
to carry it. I often ask myself why my life is so pro-
longed Not like that," she said crossly, to Varenka,
who had not succeeded in putting her plaid over her
shoulders to her satisfaction.
" For doing good, without doubt," said the prince,
with laughing eyes.
"It is not for us to judge," replied Madame Stahl,
observing the gleam of irony in the prince's face.
" I pray you send me that book, dear count. I will
thank you a thousand times," said she, turning to the
young Swede.
"Ah!" cried the prince, who had just caught sight
of the Muscovite colonel standing near ; and, bowing to
Madame Stahl, he went away with his daughter and the
Muscovite colonel, who had joined him.
" This is our aristocracy, prince ! " said the colonel,
with sarcastic intent, for he also was piqued because
Madame Stahl refused to be friendly.
" Always the same," replied the prince.
" Did you know her before her illness, prince, — that
is, before she became an invalid ? "
" Yes ; she became an invalid after I knew her."
" They say that she has not walked for ten years. " ....
" She does not walk because one leg is shorter than
the other. She is very badly put together. "....
" Papa, it is impossible," cried Kitty.
302
ANNA KARENINA
" Evil tongues say so, my dear ; and your friend
Varenka ought to see her as she is. Oh, these invalid
ladies ! "
" Oh, no, papa ! I assure you, Varenka adores her,"
cried Kitty, eagerly; "and besides, she does so much
good ! Ask any one you please. Every one knows her
and Aline Stahl."
" Maybe," replied her father, pressing her arm gently ;
" but it would be better when people do such things
that no one should know about it."
Kitty was silent, not because she had nothing to say,
but she was unwilling to reveal her inmost thoughts
even to her father.
There was one strange thing, however : decided though
she was not to unbosom herself to her father, not to
let him penetrate into the sanctuary of her reflections,
she nevertheless was conscious that her ideal of holiness,
as seen in Madame Stahl, which she had for a whole
month carried in her soul, had irrevocably disappeared,
as a face seen in a garment thrown down by chance
disappears when one really sees how the garment is
lying. She retained only the image of a lame woman
who, because she was deformed, stayed in bed, and who
tormented the paftient Varenka because she did not
arrange her plaid to suit her. And it became impossi-
ble for her imagination to bring back to her the remem-
brance of the former Madame Stahl.
CHAPTER XXXV
The prince's gayety and good humor were contagious ;
his household and acquaintances, and even their Ger-
man landlord, felt it.
When he came in with Kitty, from the springs, the
prince invited the colonel, Marya Yevgenyevna and her
daughter, and Varenka, to luncheon, and had the table
and chairs brought out under the chestnut trees in the
garden, and there the guests were served. The landlord
and his domestics were filled with zeal under the influ-
ANNA KARENINA 303
ence of his good spirits. They knew his generosity ;
and before half an hour was over a sick Hamburg doc-
tor, who had rooms on the upper floor, was looking down
with envy on the happy group of hearty Russians sitting
under the chestnut trees.
Under the flickering 'shade of the sun-flecked leaves sat
the princess, in a bonnet trimmed with lilac ribbons, pre-
siding over the table spread with a white cloth, whereon
were placed the coffee-service, the bread, butter, cheese,
and cold game ; she was distributing cups and tarts.
At the other end of the table sat the prince, eating
with good appetite, and talking with great animation.
He had spread out in front of him his purchases, —
carved boxes, jackstraws, paper-cutters of all kinds,
which he had brought back from all the places where
he had been ; and he was distributing them around to
all, including Lieschen the maid, and the landlord, with
whom he joked in his comically bad German, assuring
him that it was not the waters that had cured Kitty,
but his excellent cuisine, and particularly his prune soup.
The princess laughed at her husband for his Russian
peculiarities ; but never, since she had been at the Spa,
had she been so gay and lively. The colonel, as always,
was amused at the prince's jests ; but he agreed with
the princess on the European question, which he im-
agined that he understood thoroughly. The good
Marya Yevgenyevna laughed at every good thing that
the prince said ; and even Varenka, to Kitty's great
astonishment, laughed till she was tired, with unde-
monstrative but infectious hilarity awakened by the
prince's jests. This was something Kitty had never
known to happen before.
All this delighted Kitty, but she could not free her-
self from mental agitation ; she could not resolve the
problem which her father had unintentionally given her
by his jesting, humorous attitude toward her friends
and the life which offered her so many attractions.
Moreover, she could not help puzzling herself with the
reasons for the change in her relations with the Pe-
trofs, which had struck her that day so plainly and dis-
304 ANNA KARENINA
agreeably. All the rest were gay, but Kitty could not
be gay, and this still more annoyed her. She experi-
enced a feeling analogous to that which she had known
in her childhood, when, as a punishment for some offense,
she was shut up in her room and heard the gay merri-
ment of her sisters.
" Now, why did you purchase this heap of things .■' "
asked the princess, smiling and offering her husband a
cup of coffee.
"You go out for a walk, well! and you come to a
shop, and they address you, and say, ^ ErlaiicJit, Excel-
lenz, Diirchlaiicht!' Well, when they say Diirchlaucht}
I cannot resist any longer, and my ten thalers vanish."
" It was merely because you were bored," said the
princess.
" Certainly I was bored ! It was ennui which one
does not know how to escape from."
" But how can you be bored .'' There are so many
interesting things to see in Germany now," said Marya
Yevgenyevna.
" Yes ! I know all which is interesting just at the
present time : I know soup with prunes, I know pea-
pudding, I know everything."
" Just as you please, prince, but their institutions are
interesting," said the colonel.
" Yes ! but what is there interesting about them .-"
They are as contented as copper kopeks. They have
whipped the world ! Now, why should I find anything
to content me here } I never conquered anybody ; but
I have to take off my boots myself, and, what is worse,
put them out myself in the corridor. In the morning
I get up, and have to dress myself, and go down to the
dining-room and drink execrable tea. 'T is n't like that
at home. There you can get up when you please ; if
you are out of sorts, you can grumble ; you have all the
time you need for remembering things, and you can do
whatever you please without hurrying."
"But time is money; you forget that," said the
colonel.
^ Durcklauchty highness.
ANNA KARENINA 305
"That depends. There are whole months which you
would sell for fifty kopeks, and half-hours which you
would not take any amount of money for. Is n't that
so, Katenka .<* But why are you so solemn .'' "
" I am not, papa."
"Where are you going? Stay a little longer," said
the prince to Varenka.
" But I must go home," said Varenka, rising, and
laughing gayly again. After she had excused herself,
she took leave of her friends, and went into the house
to get her hat.
Kitty followed her. Even Varenka seemed to her
friend changed. She was not less good, but she was
different from what she had imagined her to be.
"Akh! it is a long time since I have laughed so
much," said Varenka, as she was getting her parasol
and her satchel, " How charming your papa is ! "
Kitty did not answer.
" When shall I see you again .? " asked Varenka,
^' Mamaii wanted to go to the Petrofs'. Are you
going to be there } " asked Kitty, trying to sound
Varenka.
" I am going to be there," she replied. " They are
expecting to leave, and I promised to help them pack,"
"Well, then I will go with you,"
" No ; why should you .■' "•
" Why not ? why not ? why not ? " asked Kitty, open-
ing her eyes very wide, and holding Varenka by her
sunshade. "Wait a moment, and tell me why not,"
" ' Why not ? ' Because your papa has come, and
because they are vexed at you."
" No ; tell me honestly why you don't like to have
me go to the Petrofs', You don't like it ; why is
it.?"
"I didn't say so," replied Varenka, calmly.
" I beg you to tell me."
" Must I tell you all ? "
"All, all," replied Kitty.
" Well ! There is really nothing very serious ; only
Mikhail Alekseyevitch — that was Petrofs name — a
VOL, I. — 20
3o6 ANNA KARENINA
short time ago wanted to leave even before this, and now
he does not want to go at all," replied Varenka, smiling.
"Well, well!" cried Kitty, looking at Varenka with
a gloomy expression.
" Now for some reason Anna Pavlovna imagines that
he does not want to go because you are here. Of
course this was unfortunate ; but you have been the
unwitting cause of a family quarrel, and you know how
irritable these invalids are."
Kitty grew still more melancholy, and kept silent ;
and Varenka went on speaking, trying to smooth it
over, and put things in a better light, though she fore-
saw that the result would be either tears or reproaches,
she knew not which.
"So it is better for you not to go there ....and you
will not be angry.... "
" But it was my fault, it was my fault," said Kitty,
speaking rapidly, and snatching Varenka's parasol away
from her, and not looking at her.
Varenka was amused at her friend's childish anger,
but she was afraid of offending her.
" How is it your fault ? I don't understand ! "
" My fault because it was all pretense, it was all
hypocrisy, and because it did not come from the heart.
What business had I to meddle in the affairs of a stran-
ger.^ And so I have been the cause of a quarrel, and
I have been doing what no one asked me to do, simply
because it was all hypocrisy, hypocrisy," said she.
" But why do you call it hypocrisy.'" asked Varenka,
gently.
" Akh ! How stupid, how wretched ! It was none of
my business Hypocrisy ! " mechanically opening and
shutting the sunshade.
" But it was your idea } "
" So as to seem better to others, to myself, to God, —
to deceive every one. No, I will not fall so low again.
I may be wicked, but at least I will not be a liar and
deceiver ! "
" But who is a liar ? " asked Varenka, in a reproachful
tone. " You speak as if .... "
ANNA KARENINA 307
But Kitty was thoroughly angry, and did not let her
finish.
" I am not speaking of you, not of you at all. You
are perfection. Yes, yes ; I know that you are all per-
fection. How can I help it.-*,... I am wicked; this
would not have occurred, if I had not been wicked. So
let me be what I am, but I will not be deceitful. What
have I to do with Anna Pavlovna ? Let them live as
they want to, and I will do the same. I can't be some-
body else Besides, everything is different.... "
" What is 'different * .-' " asked Varenka, in perplexity,
" Everything ! I can only live by my heart, but you
live by your principles. I like you all ; but you have
had in view only to save me, to convert me."
"You are not fair," said Varenka.
" I am not speaking for other people. I only speak
for myself."
" Kitty ! " cried her mother's voice, " come here and
show papa your corals."
Kitty, with a haughty face and not making it up with
her friend, took the box with the corals from the table
and carried it to her mother.
"What is the matter.? why are you so flushed?"
asked her father and mother with one voice.
" Nothing ; I am coming right back ; " and she hur-
ried back to the house.
"She is still there," she thought; "what shall I tell
her ? Bozhe mof ! what have I done ? what have I said.?
Why did I hurt her feelings ? What have I done ? what
shall I say to her .-' " she asked herself, as she hesitated
at the door.
Varenka, with her hat on and her parasol in her hand,
was sitting by the table, examining the spring, which
Kitty had broken. She raised her head.
"Varenka, forgive me," whispered Kitty, coming up
to her. " Forgive me, I don't know what I said. I .... "
" Truly, I did not mean to cause you pain," said
Varenka, smiling.
Peace was made.
But her father's coming had changed for Kitty the
3o8 ANNA KARENINA
whole world in which she lived. She did not give up
what she had learned, but she confessed that she had
been under an illusion by believing that she was what
she had dreamed of being. She awoke as it were from
a dream. She felt all the difficulty of staying without
hypocrisy and boastfulness on the heights to which she
had tried to raise herself ; moreover, she felt still more
vividly all the weight of that world of misfortunes, of
illnesses, of those who surrounded her, and she was tor-
mented by the efforts which she had made to interest
herself in them ; and she began to long to breathe the
purer, healthier atmosphere of Russia at Yergushovo,
where Dolly and the children had gone, as she learned
from a letter that had just come.
But her love for Varenka had not diminished. When
she went away, she begged her to come and visit them
in Russia.
" I will come when you are married," said she.
"I shall never marry."
' '"Well, then I shall never come."
"Well, in that case, I shall get married only for
your sake. Don't forget your promise," said Kitty.
The doctor's prophecies were realized. Kitty came
home to Russia perfectly well ; possibly she was not
as gay and careless as before, but her calmness was
restored. The pains of the past were only a memory.
END OF VOL. L
Levin and Kitty,
Original Drawing by E. Boyd Smith,
ANNA KARENINA
VOL. U
ANNA KARENINA
PART THIRD
CHAPTER I
SERGYEI IVANOVITCH KOZNUISHEF wanted
a rest after his intellectual labors ; and, instead of
going abroad as usual, he came, toward the end of May,
to visit his brother in the country. In his opinion, coun-
try life was best of all, and he came now to his brother's
to enjoy it. Konstantin Levin was very glad to welcome
him, the more because this sumrper he did not expect
his brother Nikolai'. But in spite of his love and respect
for Sergyef Ivanovitch, Konstantin was not at his ease
with him in the country. He was not at his ease, he
was even annoyed to see how his brother regarded the
country. For Konstantin Levin the country was the
place for life, — for pleasures, sorrows, labor. For Ser-
gyei Ivanovitch the country, on the one side, offered
rest from labor, on the other, a profitable antidote against
corruption, and he took it gladly, convinced of its utility.
For Konstantin Levin the country was beautiful because
it offered field for works of incontestable utility. For
Sergyef Ivanovitch the country was especially delightful
because there was nothing he could do, or needed to do
there, at all.
Moreover, Sergyeif Ivanovitch's behavior toward the
people somewhat piqued Konstantin. Sergyeif Ivano-
vitch said that he loved and knew the people ; and he
often chatted with the muzhiks as he was fully able to
do, without pretense and without affectation, and dis-
covered, in his interviews with them, traits of character
honorable to the people, so that he felt convinced that
VOL. II. — I i
2 ANNA KARENINA
he knew them thoroughly. Such relations with the
people displeased Konstantin Levin. For him the peas-
antry was only the chief factor in associated labor ; and
though he respected the muzhik, and, as he himself said,
drew in with the milk of the woman who nursed him a
genuine love for them, still he, as a factor associated
with them in the general labors, while sometimes ad-
miring their strength, their good nature, their sense of
justice, very often when in the general work of the
estate other qualities were needed, flew into a passion
with the peasantry for their carelessness, slovenliness,
drunkenness, untruthfulness. If he had been asked
whether he liked the people, he would really have not
known what reply to make. He liked and he did not
like the people as the majority of men did. Of course
as a good man he liked men more than he disliked
them ; and so it was with the peasantry. But to like or
not to like the peasantry, as something out of the com-
mon, was an impossibility to him, because he not only
lived with the peasantry, because not only were his in-
terests bound up with those of the peasantry, but also
he looked on himself as a part of the people, saw no
qualities or faults in the people that he did not himself
possess, and could not take his stand contrary to the
people. Moreover, although he had long lived in the
closest relationship with his muzhiks as their landlord,
their mediator, and, what was more, their adviser, — for
the muzhiks had faith in him, and came to him from
forty versts around to ask his advice, — he passed no
definite judgment on them ; and to the question, did
he know the people, he would have found it as hard
to find an answer as to the question, did he like the
people.
But to say that he knew the peasantry would have
meant in his opinion the same as to say that he knew
men. He was constantly admiring and studying all
kinds of men, and among them, men from among the
peasantry whom he considered to be fine and interest-
ing specimens of humanity, and he was all the time
discovering in them new characteristics, and chang-
ANNA KARENINA J
ing and revising his preconceived theories regarding
them.
Sergyef Ivanovitch was the opposite. Just exactly as
he liked and enjoyed the country life for its contrariety
to that which he did not like, so he liked the peasantry
for their contrariety to that class of men which he did
not like, and in exactly the same way he knew the
people as beings opposed to men in general. His
methodical mind clearly differentiated the definite forms
of life among the peasantry, deducing it partly from
the life of the peasantry itself, but principally from
its contrarieties. He never changed his opinions in
regard to the people and his sympathetic relationship
to them.
In the discussions which arose between the brothers
in consequence of their divergence of views, Sergyelf
Ivanovitch always won the victory because he had defi-
nite opinions concerning the people, their character,
peculiarities, and tastes ; while Konstantin Levin, cease-
lessly modifying his, was easily convicted of contradict-
ing himself.
Sergyelf Ivanovitch looked on his brother as a splen-
did fellow, whose heart was bicn placi, as he expressed
it in French, but whose mind, though quick and active,
was open to the impressions of the moment, and, there-
fore, full of contradictions. With the condescension of
an elder brother, he sometimes explained to him the real
meaning of things ; but he could not take genuine pleas-
ure in discussing with him, because his opponent was so
easy to vanquish.
Konstantin Levin looked on his brother as a man of
vast intelligence and learning, endowed with extraordi-
nary faculties, most advantageous to the community at
large ; but as he advanced in life, and learned to know
him better, he sometimes asked himself, in the secret
chambers of his heart, if this devotion to the general
interests, which he felt that he himself entirely lacked,
was really a good quality, or rather a lack of something
— not a lack of good-natured, upright, benevolent wishes
and tastes, but the lack of the motive power of life,
4 ANNA KARENINA
which is called " heart," of that impulse which con-
strains a man to choose one out of all multitudes of
paths which life offers to men, and to desire this alone.
The better he knew his brother, the more he remarked
that Sergyer Ivanovitch and many other workers for the
common good were not drawn by their affections to this
work, but that they used their reason to justify them-
selves in the interest they took in it.
Levin was still further confirmed in this hypothesis
by the observation that his brother did not really take
much more to heart the questions concerning the com-
mon good and the immortality of the soul than those
connected with a game of chess or the ingenious con-
struction of a new machine.
Again Levin felt, also, constraint with his brother
from the fact that while he was in the country, and es-
pecially in the summer-time, he was all the time busy
with his work on the estate. The days seemed to him
too short for him to accomplish all that he wanted to
do, while his brother was taking his ease. But, though
Sergyef Ivanovitch was enjoying his vacation, in other
words, was jiot working at his writing, he was so used to
intellectual activity, that he enjoyed expressing in beau-
tiful, concise form the thoughts that occurred to him,
and he liked to have some one listen to him. His most
habitual and most natural auditor was his brother, and
therefore, notwithstanding the friendly simplicity of
their relations, Konstantin felt awkward to be alone with
him. Sergyei' Ivanovitch liked to lie on the grass, in the
sun, stretched out at full length, and to talk lazily.
"You would n't believe," he would say to his brother,
"how I enjoy this tufted idleness. I have not an idea
in my head ; it is empty as a shell."
But Konstantin Levin quickly wearied of sitting down
and hearing him talk — especially because he knew that
in his absence they were spreading the manure on the
unplowed field, and would be up to God knows what
mischief, unless he should be on hand to superintend this
work ; he knew that they would not screw up the cutters
in his plows, but would be taking them off and then
ANNA KARENINA ■ ^
say that plows were foolish devices, and that Andreyef s
sokha ^ did the work, and the like.
" Don't you ever get weary going about so in this
heat?" asked Sergyei' Ivanovitch.
" No. Only I must run over to the office for a min-
ute," said Levin ; and he hurried across the field.
CHAPTER II
Early in June, Agafya Mikhadovna, the old nurse
and ckonomka, or housekeeper, in going down cellar with
a pot of salted mushrooms, slipped and fell, and dislo-
cated her wrist.
The district doctor, a loquacious young medical stu-
dent who had just taken his degree, came, and, after
examining the arm, declared that it was not out of joint.
During dinner, proud of finding himself in the society
of the distinguished Sergyei Ivanovitch Koznuishef, he
began to relate all the petty gossip of the district in
order to display his enlightened views of things ; and he
expressed his regrets at the bad condition of provincial
affairs.
Sergyei Ivanovitch listened attentively, asking various
questions ; and animated by the presence of a new hearer,
he made keen and shrewd observations, which were re-
ceived by the young doctor with respectful appreciation,
and his spirits rose high, which, as his brother knew,
was liable to be the case with him after a lively and brill-
iant conversation.
After the doctor's departure he expressed his desire
to go to the river and fish. He was fond of fishing,
and seemed to take pride in showing that he could
amuse himself with such a stupid occupation. Kon-
stantin had to go to certain fields and meadows, and
offered to take his brother in his cabriolet as far as the
river,
^ The picture by Repin represents Count Tolstoi plowing with the primi-
tive sokha. Levin's peasantry call the plow (^plug) vuidumka pustaya,
" empty invention."
6 ANNA KARENINA
It was the time of the year, the very top of the sum<
mer, when the prospects of harvest may be estimated,
when the labors of the next year's planting begin to be
thought of, and the mowing-time has come ; when the rye
is already eared and sea-green in color, but still not fully
formed ; when the ears of corn swing lightly in the breeze ;
when the green oats, with scattered clumps of yellow
grass, peep irregularly from the late-sown fields; when
the early buckwheat already is up and hides the soil;
when the fallow fields, beaten a^ hard as stone by the
cattle and with paths deserted, on which the sokha, or
primitive plow, has no effect, are half broken up ; when
the odor of the dry manure, heaped in little hillocks over
the fields, mingles at twilight with the perfume of the
" honey-grass," ^ and on the bottom lands, waiting for
the scythe, stand the protected meadows like a bound-
less sea with the darkening clumps of sorrel that has
done blooming.
It was the time when there is a brief breathing-spell
before the harvest, that great event which the muzhik
with eagerness expects each year. The crops promised
to be superb ; and there was a succession of bright, clear
summer days, followed by short, dewy nights.
The two brothers had to go through the woodland to
reach the fields. SergyeT Ivanovitch was all the time
admiring the beauty of the forest with its dense canopy
of leaves, and he pointed out to his brother, as they rode
along, now an old linden almost in flower, dark on its
shady side and variegated with yellow stipules ; now at
the emerald-shining young shoots of that same year;
but Konstantin did not himself like to speak or to hear
about the beauties of nature. Words, he thought, spoiled
the beauty of the thing that Ije saw. He assented to
what his brother said, but allowed his mind to concern
itself with other things. After they left the wood, his
whole attention was absorbed by a fallow field on a
hillock, where in some places the grass was growing
yellow, where in others whole squares of it had been
cut, and in others raked up into haycocks, and where in
1 IJokus mollis, soft-grass.
ANNA KARENINA 7
still other places the men were plowing. The carts
were thronging up toward the field. Levin counted
them, and was satisfied with the work which was going
on.
His thoughts were diverted, by the sight of. the
meadows, to the question of haymaking. He always
experienced something which went to his very heart at
the hay-harvesting. When they reached the meadow
Levin stopped his horse. The morning dew was still
damp on the thick grass, and Sergyei Ivanovitch begged
his brother, in order that he might not wet his feet, to
drive him in his cabriolet as far as a clump of laburnums
near which perch were to be caught. Though Levin
disliked to trample down his grass, he drove over through
the field. The tall grass clung round the wheels and
the horse's legs, and scattered its seed on the damp
spokes and naves.
Sergyei sat down under the laburnums, and cast his
line, but Levin drove the horse aside, fastened him, and
then went off through the vast green sea of the meadow
unstirred by a breath of wind. The silky grass with
its ripe seeds was almost waist-high in the places that
had been overflowed.
As Konstantin Levin crossed the meadow diagonally,
he met on the road an old man with one of his eyes
swollen, and carrying a swarming-basket full of bees.
" Well .-* Have you caught them, Fomitch } " he asked.
" Caught them indeed, Konstantin Mitritch ! If only
I could keep my own ! This is the second time this
swarm has gone off, .... but, thanks to the boys ! they
galloped after 'em ! .... They *re plowing your fields.
They unhitched the horse and dashed off after 'em!" ....
" Well, what do you say, Fomitch, should we begin
mowing or wait .-' "
" Just as you say ! According to our notions we should
wait till St. Peter's Day.^ But you always mow earlier.
Well, just as God will have it — the grass is in fine con-
dition. There '11 be plenty of room for the cattle."
"And what do you think of the weather.?"
1 The feast of St. Peter and St. Paul is June 29 (O.S.), or July II.
8 ANNA KARENINA
" Well, all is in- the hand of God. Maybe the weathei
will hold."
Levin returned to his brother.
Though he had caught nothing, Sergyeif Ivanovitch
was .undisturbed, and seemed in the best of spirits.
Levin saw that he was stimulated by his talk with the
doctor, and that he was eager to go on talking. Levin,
on the contrary, was anxious to get back to the house
as soon as possible to give some orders about hiring
mowers for the next day, and to decide the question
about the haymaking which occupied all his thoughts.
"Well," said he, " shall we go ? "
" What is your hurry ,'' Do let us sit down. But how
drenched you are ! .... No, I have had no luck, but I have
enjoyed it all the same. All outdoor sports are beautiful
because you have to do with nature. Now just notice
how charming that steely water is ! " he exclaimed.
"These meadow banks," he went on to say, "always
remind me of an enigma, do you know.? — 'The grass
says to the river, " We have strayed far enough, we have
strayed far enough," ' "
" I don't know that riddle," interrupted Konstantin,
in a melancholy tone.
CHAPTER III
" Do you know, I was thinking about you," said
Sergyeif Ivanovitch. " It is not well at all, what is
going on in your district, if that doctor tells the truth ;
he is not a stupid fellow. And I have told you all
along, and I say to-day, you are wrong in not going to
the assembly-meetings and in generally holding aloof
from the affairs of the commune. If men of standing
don't take an interest in affairs, God knows how things
will turn out. The taxes we pay will be spent in salaries,
and not for schools, or hospitals, or midwives, or pharma-
cies, or anything."
" But I have tried it," replied Levin, faintly and
ANNA KARENINA 9
unwillingly. " I can't do anything. What is to be
done about it ? "
" Now, why can't you do anything ? I confess I don't
understand it. I cannot admit that it is indifference or
lack of intelligence ; is n't it simply laziness ? "
" It is not that, or the first or the second. I have
tried it, and I see that I cannot do anything," said
Levin.
•He was not paying great heed to what his brother
said, but was looking intently across the fields on the
other side of the river. He saw something black, but
he could not make out whether it was only a horse, or
his overseer on horseback.
"Why can't you do anything.-* You have made an
experiment, and it does not turn out to your satisfaction,
and you give up. Why not have a little pride about
you ? "
" Pride ? " said Levin, touched to the quick by his
brother's reproach. *' I don't see what that has to do
with it. If at the university they had told me that
others understood the integral calculus, but I did not,
that would have touched my pride ; but here one must
be convinced in advance that one needs special apti-
tude for these things, and first of all that these things
are very important."
" What ! do you mean to say that they are not impor-
tant .'' " asked Sergyef Ivanovitch, in his turn touched to
the quick because his brother seemed to attach so little
importance to what so deeply interested him, and more
than all because he apparently gave him such poor
attention.
" What you wish does not seem to me important, and
I cannot feel interested in it," replied Levin, who now
saw that the black speck was the overseer, and that the
overseer was probably taking some muzhiks from their
work. They had canted over their plows. " Can they
have finished plowing .-'" he asked himself.
" Now, listen ! nevertheless," said his brother, his
handsome intellectual face growing a shade darker.
" There are limits to everything. It is very fine to be an
lo ANNA KARENINA
original and outspoken man, and to hate falsehood, —
all that I know ; but the fact is, what you say has no
sense at all, or has a very bad sense. How can you
think it unimportant that this people, which you love,
as you assert.... "
" I never asserted any such thing," said Konstantin
Levin to himself.
" That this people should perish without aid .-* Coarse
peasant women act as midwives, and the people remain
in ignorance, and are at the mercy of every letter-writer.
But the means is given into your hands to remedy all
this ; and you don't assist them, because, in your eyes,
it is not important."
And Sergyei' Ivanovitch offered him the following di-
lemma : —
" Either you are not developed sufficiently to see all
that you might do, or you do not care to give up your
own comfort, or your vanity, I don't know which, in
order to do this."
Konstantin Levin felt that he must make a defense,
or be convicted of indifference for the public weal, and
this was vexatious and offensive to him.
" Ah ! but there is still another thing," he said reso-
lutely. " I do not see how it is possible .... "
" What ! impossible to give medical aid if the funds
were watched more closely ? "
" Impossible it seems to me In the four thousand
square versts of our district, with our floods, snow-storms,
and busy seasons, I don't see the possibility of giving pub-
lic medical aid. Besides, I don't much believe in medi-
cine, anyway." ....
" Well now, what nonsense ! you are unjust I could
name you a thousand cases .... well, but how about
schools .'' "
" Why schools ? "
" What do you say ? Can you doubt the advantages
of education ? If it is good for you, then it is good for
every one !"
Konstantin Levin felt that he was morally pushed to
the wall ; and so he grew irritated, and involuntarily
ANNA KARENINA ii
revealed the chief reason for his indifference to the
communal affairs.
" Maybe all this is a good thing," said he ; "but why
should I put myself out to have medical dispensaries
located which I shall never make use of, or schools
where I shall never send my children, and where the
peasants won't want to send their children, and where I
am not sure that it is wise to send them, anyway ? "
Sergyei' Ivanovitch for a moment was disconcerted by
this unexpected way of looking at the matter ; but he
immediately developed a new plan of attack. He was
silent, pulled in one af his lines and wound it up ; then
with a smile he turned to his brother : —
'• Now, excuse me In the first place, the dispensary
has proved necessary. Here, we ourselves have just
sent for the communal doctor for Agafya Mikhailovna."
"Well, I still think her wrist was out of joint."
"That remains to be proved In the next place, the
muzhik who can read is a better workman, and more
useful to you."
" Oh, no ! " replied Konstantin Levin, resolutely.
" Ask any one you please, they will tell you that the
educated muzhik is far worse as a laborer. He will not
repair the roads ; and, when they build bridges, he will
only steal the planks."
" Now, that is not the point," said Sergyef, frowning
because he did not like contradictions, and especially
those that leaped from one subject to another, and kept
bringing up new arguments without any apparent con-
nection, so that it was impossible to know what to say
in reply. " That is not the point. Excuse me. Do
you admit that education is a benefit to the peasantry.-'"
"I do," said Levin, at haphazard, and instantly he
saw that he had not said what he thought. He realized
that, by making this admission, it would be easy to
convict him of speaking nonsense. How it would be
brought up against him he did not know ; but he knew
that he would surely be shown his logical inconsequence,
and he awaited the demonstration. It came much sooner
than he expected.
12 ANNA KARENINA
"If you admit its value," said Sergyef Ivanovitch,
"then, as an honest man, you cannot refuse to delight
in this work and sympathize with it, and give it your
cooperation."
" But I still do not admit that this activity is good,"
said Konstantin Levin, his face flushing,
" What ? But you just said ...."
" That is, I don't say that it is bad, but that it is not
possible."
" But you can't know this, since you have not made
any effort to try it."
" Well, let us admit that the education of the people
is advantageous," said Levin, although he did not in
the least admit it. " Let us admit that it is so ; still I
don't see why I should bother myself with it."
" Why not ? "
" Well, if we are going to discuss the question, then
explain it to me from your philosophical point of view."
" I don't see what philosophy has to do here," retorted
Sergyef Ivanovitch, in a tone which seemed to cast some
doubt on his brother's right to discuss philosophy; and
this nettled Levin.
" This is why," said he, warmly. " I think that the
motive power in all our actions is forever personal hap-
piness. Now, I see nothing in our provincial institu-
tions that contributes to my well-being as a nobleman.
The roads are not better, and cannot be made so. My
horses carry me, even on bad roads. The doctor and
the dispensary are no use to me. The justice of the
peace does me no good ; I never went to him, and never
shall go to him. The schools seem to me not only use-
less, but, as I have said, are even harmful ; and these
communal institutions oblige me to pay eighteen kopeks
a desyatin, to go to town, to sleep with bugs, and to
hear all sorts of vulgar and obscene talk, but my
personal interests are not helped."
"Excuse me," said Sergyei Ivanovitch, with a smile.
" Our personal interests did not compel us to work for
the emancipation of the serfs, and yet we worked for it."
" No," replied Konstantin, with still more animation ;
ANNA KARENINA 13
"the emancipation of the serfs was quite another affair.
It was for personal interest. We wanted to shake off
this yoke that hung on the necks of all of us decent
people. But to be a member of the council ; to discuss
how much the night workman should be paid, and how
to lay sewer-pipes in streets where one does not live ; to
be a juryman, and sit in judgment on a muzhik who has
stolen a ham ; to listen for six hours to all sorts of rub-
bish which the defendant and the prosecutor may utter,
and, as presiding officer, to ask my old friend, the half-
idiotic Aloshka, ' Do you plead guilty, Mr. Accused, of
having stolen this ham ?' " ....
And Konstantin, carried away by his subject, enacted
the scene between the president and the half-idiotic Al-
oshka. It seemed to him that this was in the line of
the argument.
But Sergyei Ivanovitch shrugged his shoulders.
" Nu ! what do you mean by this ? "
" I only mean that I will always defend with all my
powers those rights which touch me, — my interests ;
that when the policemen came to search us students, and
read our letters, I was ready to defend these rights with
all my might, to defend my rights to instruction, to lib-
erty. I am interested in the military obligation which
concerns the fate of my children, of my brothers, and of
myself. I am willing to discuss this because it touches
me ; but to deliberate on the employment of forty thou-
sand rubles of communal money, or to judge the crack-
brained Aloshka, I won't do it, and I can't."
Konstantin Levin discoursed as if the fountains of his
speech were unloosed. Sergyei Ivanovitch smiled.
" Supposing to-morrow you. were arrested ; would you
prefer to be tried by the old ' criminal court ' ? " 1
" But I am not going to be arrested. I am not going
to cut any one's throat, and this is no use to me. Now,
see here ! " he continued, again jumping to a matter en-
tirely foreign to their subject, " our provincial institu-
tions, and all that, remind me of the little twigs which
on Trinity day we stick into the ground, to imitate a
^ Ugolovnaya Palata,
J4 ANNA KARENINA
forest. The forest has grown of itself in Europe ; but
I cannot on my soul have any faith in our birch sprouts,
or water them."
Sergyei Ivanovitch only shrugged his shoulders again,
as a sign of astonishment that birch twigs should be
mingled in their discussion, although he understood per-
fectly what his brother meant.
" Excuse me," said he. "That is no way to reason."
But Konstantin Levin was eager to explain his self-
confessed lack of interest in matters of public concern,
and he went on to say : —
" I think that there can be no durable activity if it is
not founded in individual interest : this is a general, a
philosophical truth," said he, laying special emphasis on
the word " philosophical," as if he wished to show that he
also had the right, as well as any one else, to speak of
philosophy.
Again Sergyei Ivanovitch smiled. ** He also," thought
he, " has his own special philosophy for the benefit of
his inclinations."
"Well, have done with philosophy," he said. "Its
chief problem has been in all times to grasp the indis-
pensable bond which exists between the individual inter-
est and the public interest. This is not to the point,
however. But I can make your comparison fit the case.
The little birch twigs have not been merely stuck in,
but have been sowed, planted, and it is necessary to
watch them carefully. The only nations which can
have a future, the only nations which deserve the name
of historic, are those which feel the importance and
the value of their institutions, and prize them."
And Sergyef Ivanovitch transferred the question over
into the domain of the historico-philosophical, which
Konstantin was by no means able to appreciate, and
showed him all the erroneousness of his views.
" As to your distaste for affairs, excuse me if I refer
it to our Russian indolence and gentility ; ^ and I trust
that this temporary error of yours will pass away."
Konstantin was silent. He felt himself routed on
^ Barsivo, Russian rank. The stem appears in the word barin, master.
ANNA KARENINA 15
every side, but he felt also that his brother had not
understood what he wished to say. He did not know
exactly whether it was because he did not know how to
express himself clearly, or because his brother did not wish
to understand him, or whether he could not understand
him. He did not try to fathom this question ; but, with-
out replying to his brother, he became absorbed in en-
tirely different thoughts, connected with his own work.
Sergyeif Ivanovitch reeled in his last line, he unhitched
the horse, and they drove away.
CHAPTER IV
The thought that was absorbing Levin at the time of
his discussion with his brother was this : the year be-
fore, having come one day to the hay-field. Levin had
fallen into a passion with his overseer. He had em-
ployed his favorite means of calming himself — had
taken the scythe from a muzhik and begun to mow.
He enjoyed the work so much that he had tried it
again and again. He had mowed the whole of the
lawn in front of his house, and this year early in the
spring he had formulated a plan of spending whole
days mowing with the muzhiks.
Since his brother's arrival he had been in doubt:
Should he mow or not ? He had scruples about leaving
his brother alone for whole days at a time, and he was
afraid that his brother would make sport of him on ac-
count of this. But as they crossed the meadow, and he
recalled the impression that the mowing had made on
him, he had almost made up his mind that he would
mow. Now after his vexatious discussion with his
brother, he again remembered his project.
" I must have some physical exercise, or my charac-
ter will absolutely spoil," he thought, and made up his
mind to mow, no matter what his brother or his servants
should say.
That very evening Konstantin Levin went to the office,
gave some directions about the work to be done, and
i6 ANNA KARENINA
sent to the village to hire some mowers for the morrow,
so as to attack his field at Kalinovo, which was the
largest and best.
" And here, please send my scythe over to Sef, and
have him put it in order and bring it back to-morrow ;
perhaps I will come and mow too," said he, trying to
hide his confusion.
The overseer smiled, and said : —
" I will obey you — sluskayu-s."
Later, at the tea-table. Levin said to his brother : —
" It seems like settled weather. To-morrow I am
going to begin mowing."
" I like this work very much," said Sergyei Ivanovitch.
" I like it extremely," said Levin. " Last year I
myself mowed with the muzhiks, and to-morrow I am
going to spend all day at it."
Sergyei Ivanovitch raised his head, and gazed with
astonishment at his brother.
" What did you say } Like the muzhiks, all day
long .? "
" Certainly ; it is very enjoyable," said Levin.
•' It is excellent as physical exercise, but can you stand
such work 1 " asked Sergyei Ivanovitch, without mean-
ing to say anything ironical.
" I have tried it. At first it is hard work, but after-
wards you get used to it. I think I shall not leave
off." ....
" Really ! but tell me, how do the muzhiks look at it .>'
Naturally they make sport because the barin is queer,
don't they ? "
" No, I don't think so ; but this is such pleasant and
at the same time hard work, that they don't think about
it."
" But how do you and they do about dinner } You
could hardly have a bottle of Lafitte and a roast turkey
sent you out there."
" No ; I come home while the workmen have their
nooning."
The next morning Konstantin Levin got up earlier
than usual ; but his duties about the house detained
ANNA KARENINA 17
him, and when he came to the mowing-field he found
the men had already mowed the first time across.
From the top of the slope the part of the meadow
still in the shade, and already mowed, spread out before
him, with its long windrows and the little black heaps
of kaftans thrown down by the men when they went by
the first time.
As he drew nearer he saw also the band of muzhiks,
some in their kaftans, some in their shirt-sleeves, mov-
ing in a long line, and swinging their scythes in unison.
He counted forty-two men of them. They were advanc-
ing slowly over the uneven bottom-land of the meadow,
where there was an old dike. Many of them Levin
knew. There was the old round-shouldered Yermil, in
a very clean white shirt, wielding the scythe ; there was
the young small Vaska, who used to be Levin's coach-
man ; there was Sef, also, a little, thin old peasant,^ who
had taught him how to mow. He was cutting a wide
swath without stooping, and handling his scythe as if
he were playing with it.
Levin dismounted from his horse, tied her near the
road, and went across to Sef, who immediately got a
second scythe from a clump of bushes and handed it to
him.
" All ready, barin ; 't is like a razor, -— cuts of itself,"
said Sef, with a smile, taking off his cap and handing
him the scythe.
Levin took it and began to try it. The mowers, hav-
ing finished their line, were returning one after the other
on their track, covered with sweat, but gay and lively.
They laughed timidly, and saluted the barin. All of
them looked at him, but no one ventured to speak until
at last a tall old man, with a wrinkled, beardless face,
and dressed in a sheepskin jacket, thus addressed
him : —
" Look here, barin, if you put your hand to the rope,
you must not let go," said he ; and Levin heard the
sound of stifled laughter among the mowers.
^ MuzJiichok, diminutive of muzhik, as muzhik is diminutive of muzh, a
man.
VOL. II. — 2
i8 ANNA KARENINA
" I will try not to be left behind," he said, as he took
his place behind Sef, and waited for the signal to
begin.
" 'Tention ! " cried the old man.
Sef opened the way, and Levin followed in his track.
The grass was short and tough ; and Levin, who had
not mowed in a long time, and was confused by the
watchful eyes of the men, at first made very bad work
of it, though he swung the scythe energetically. Voices
were heard behind him : —
"He does not hold his scythe right: the sned is too
high. See how he stoops like," said one.
" Bears his hand on too much," said another.
" No inatter, it goes pretty well," said the head
man.
" Look, he goes at a great rate ! Cuts a wide swath !
.... He '11 get played out. The master is trying it for
himself as hard as he can, but look at his row ! For
such work my brother was beaten once."
The grass became less tough ; and Levin, listening
and making no reply, trying to mow as well as he could,
followed Sef. Thus they went a hundred steps. Sef
kept on without any intermission, and without showing
the least fatigue ; but Levin began by this time to feel
terribly and feared that he could not keep it up, he was
so tired.
He was just thinking that he was using his last
strength and had determined to ask Sef to rest ; but
at this time the muzhik of his own accord halted,
bent over, and, taking a handful of grass, began to
wipe his scythe, and to whet it. Levin straightened
himself up, and with a sigh of relief looked about him.
Just behind was a peasant, and he also was evidently
tired, because instantly without catching up to Levin he
also stopped and began to whet his scythe. Sef whetted
his own scythe and Levin's, and they started again.
At the second attempt it was just the same. Sef ad-
vanced a step at every swing of the scythe, without
stopping and without sign of weariness. Levin followed
him, striving not to fall behind; but each moment it
ANNA KARENINA 19
came harder and harder. But, as before, just as he
believed himself at the end of his forces, Sef stopped
and whetted his scythe.
Thus they went over the first swath. And this long
stretch seemed especially hard for Levin. When the
swath was finished and Sef, throwing the scythe over
his shoulder, slowly walked back in the tracks made by
his heels as he had mowed, and Levin also retraced his
steps in the same way, although the sweat stood on his
face and dropped from his nose, and all his back was as
wet as if he had been plunged in water ; still he felt
very comfortable. He was especially glad that he knew
now that he could keep up with the rest.
His pleasure was marred only by the fact that his
swath was not good.
" I will work less with my arms and more with my
whole body," he said to himself, carefully comparing
Sef's smooth straight swath with his own rough and
irregular line.
The first time, as Levin observed, Sef went very
rapidly, apparently wishing to test his barin's endur-
ance, and the swath seemed endless. But the succeed-
ing swaths grew easier and easier. Still Levin had to
exert all his energies .not to fall behind the muzhiks.
He had no other thought, no other desire, than to reach
the other end of the meadow as soon as the others did,
and to do his work as perfectly as possible. He heard
nothing but the swish of the scythes, saw nothing but
Sef's straight back, plodding on in front of him, and the
semicircle described in the grass which fell over, slowly
carrying with it the delicate heads of flowers, and then
far in front of him the end of the row, where he would
be able to get breath.
Not at first realizing what it was or whence it came,
suddenly in the midst of his labors he felt a pleasant
sensation of coolness on his shoulders. He looked up
at the sky while Sef was plying the whetstone, and he
saw an inky black cloud. A heavy shower had come
up and the raindrops were falling fast. Some of the
muzhiks were putting on their kaftans; others, like
20 ANNA KARENINA
Levin himself, were glad to feel the rain on their hot,
sweaty shoulders.
The work went on and on. Some of the swaths were
long, others were shorter ; here the grass was good,
there it was poor. Levin absolutely lost all idea of time
and knew not whether it was early or late. In his work
a change now began to be visible, and this afforded him
vast satisfaction. While he was engaged in this labor
there were moments during which he forgot what he
was doing and it seemed easy to him, and during these
moments his swath came out almost as even and per-
fect as that done by Sef. But as soon as he became
conscious of what he was doing and strove to do better,
he immediately began to feel all the difficulty of the
work and his swath became poor.
After they had gone over the field one more time, he
started to turn back again ; but Sef halted, and, going
to the old man, whispered something to him. Then the
two studied the sun.
" What are they talking about ? and why don't they
keep on .-* " thought Levin, without considering that the
muzhiks had been mowing for more than four hours, and
it was time for them to have their morning meal.
" Breakfast, barin," said the old man.
"Time, is it.? Well, breakfast, then."
Levin gave his scythe to Sef, and together with the
muzhiks, who were going to their kaftans for their bread,
he crossed the wide stretch of field, where the mown
grass lay lightly moistened by the shower, and went to
his horse. Then only he perceived that he had made a
false prediction about the weather, and that the rain had
wet his hay.
"The hay will be spoiled," he said.
" No harm done, barin ; mow in the rain, rake in the
sun," said the old man.
Levin unhitched his horse and went home to take
coffee.
SergyeY Ivanovitch had just got up ; before he was
dressed and down in the dining-room, Konstantin was
back to the field again.
ANNA KARENINA 2i
CHAPTER V
After breakfast, Levin took his place in the line not
where he had been before, but between the quizzical old
man, who asked him to be his neighbor, and a young
muzhik who had been married only since autumn and
was now mowing for the first time.
The old man, standing very erect, mowed straight
on, with long, regular strides ; and the swinging of the
scythe seemed no more like labor than the swinging
of his arms when walking. His well-whetted scythe
cut, as it were, of its own energy through the succulent
grass.
Behind Levin came the young Mishka. His pleasant,
youthful face, under a wreath of green grass which bound
his hair, worked with the energy that employed the rest
of his body. But when any one looked at him, he would
smile. He would rather die than confess that he found
the labor hard.
Levin went between the two.
The labor seemed lighter to him during the heat of
the day. The sweat in which he was bathed refreshed
him ; and the sun, burning his back, his head, and his
arms bared to the elbow, gave him force and tenacity
for his work. More and more frequently the moments
of oblivion, of unconsciousness of what he was doing,
came back to him ; the scythe went of itself. Those
were happy moments. Then, still more gladsome were
the moments when, coming to the river where the wind-
rows ended, the old man, wiping his scythe with the
moist, thick grass, rinsed the steel in the river, then,
dipping up a ladleful of the cool water, gave it to
Levin.
" This is my kvas ! It 's good, is n't it .!" " he exclaimed,
winking.
And, indeed, it seemed to Levin that he had never
tasted any liquor more refreshing than this lukewarm
water, in which grass floated, and tasting of the rusty
tin cup. Then came the glorious slow promenade,
22 ANNA KARENINA
when, with scythe on the arm, there was time to wipe
the heated brow, fill the lungs full, and glance round at
the long line of haymakers, and the busy work that had
been accomplished in field and forest.
The longer Levin mowed, the more frequently he
felt the moments of oblivion, when his hands did not
wield the scythe, but the scythe seemed to have a self-
conscious body, full of life, and carrying on, as it were
by enchantment, a regular and systematic work. These
were indeed joyful moments.
It was hard only when he was obliged to interrupt
this unconscious activity to think about something, when
he had to remove a clod or a clump of wild sorrel. The
old man did this easily. When he came to a clod, he
changed his motion and now with his heel, now with
the end of the scythe, pushed it aside with repeated
taps. And while doing this he noticed everything and
examined everything that was to be seen. Now he
picked a strawberry, and ate it himself or gave it to
Levin ; now snipped off a twig with the end of the
scythe ; now he discovered a nest of quail from which
the mother was scurrying away, or impaled a snake as
if with a spear, and, having shown it to Levin, flung it
out of the way.
But for Levin and the young fellow behind him these
changes of motion were difficult. When once they got
into the swing of work, they could not easily change
their movements and at the same time observe what
was before them.
Levin did not realize how the time was flying. If he
had been asked how long he had been mowing, he
would have answered, " Half an hour ; " and here it
was almost dinner-time.
After they finished one row, the old man drew his
attention to some little girls and boys, half concealed
by the tall grass, who were coming from all sides,
through the tall grass and down the roads, bringing to
the haymakers their parcels of bread and rag-stoppered
jugs of kvas, which seemed too heavy for their little
arms.
ANNA KARENINA aj
"See! here come the midgets,"^ said he, pointing to
them ; and, shading his eyes, he looked at the sun.
Twice more they went across the field, and then the
old man stopped.
" Well, barin, dinner," said he, in a decided tone.
Then the mowers, walking along the riverside, went
back through the windrows to their kaftans, where the
children were waiting with the dinners. The muzhiks
gathered together ; some clustered around the carts,
others sat in the shade of a laburnum bush, where the
mown grass was heaped up.
Levin sat down near them ; he had no wish to leave
them.
All constraint in the presence of the barin had disap-
peared. The muzhiks prepared to take their dinner.
Some washed themselves, the children went in swim-
ming in the river, others found places to nap in, or
undid their bags of bread and uncorked their jugs of
kvas.
The old man crumbed his bread into his cup, mashed
it with the shank of his spoon, poured water on from
his tin basin, and, cutting off still more bread, he salted
the whole plentifully ; and, turning to the east, he said
his prayer.
" Here now, barin, try my bread-crumbs ! "^ said he,
kneeling down before his cup.
Levin found the soaked bread so palatable that he
decided not to go home to dinner. He dined with the
old man, and talked with him about his domestic affairs,
in which he took a lively interest, and in his turn told
the old man about such of his plans and projects as
would interest him.
He felt far nearer to him than to his brother, and he
could not help smiling at the affection which he felt for
this simple-hearted man.
When the old man got up from his dinner, offered
1 Kozyavki, ladybugs.
2 Tiurka, diminutive of tiura, a bread-crumb soaked in kvas^ or beer.
The starik used water instead of kvas. Kvas is a drink made of fermented
rye meal or bread with malt.
24 ANNA KARENINA
another prayer, and arranged a pillow of fresh-mown
grass; and composed himself for a nap, Levin did the
same ; and, in spite of the stubborn, sticky flies and
insects tickling his heated face and body, he immedi-
ately went off to sleep, and did not wake until the
sun came out on the other side of the laburnum bush
and began to shine in his face. The starik had been
long awake, and was sitting up cutting the children's
hair.
Levin looked around him, and did not know where he
was. Everything seemed so changed. The vast level
of the mown meadow with its windrows of already
fragrant hay was lighted and glorified in a new fashion
by the oblique rays of the afternoon sun. The trimmed
bushes down by the river, and the river itself, before in-
visible but now shining like steel with its windings ;
and the busy peasantry ; and the high wall of grass,
where the meadow was not yet mowed ; and the young
vultures flying high above the bare field, — all this was
absolutely new to him.
Levin calculated how much had been mowed, and
how much could still be done that day. The work
accomplished by the forty-two men was considerable.
The whole great meadow, which in the time of serfdom
used to take thirty scythes two days, was now almost
mowed ; only a few corners with short rows were left.
But Levin wanted to do as much as possible that day,
and he was vexed at the sun which was sinking too
early. He felt no fatigue; he only wanted to do more
rapid work, and get as much done as was possible.
" Do you think we shall get Mashkin Verkh ^ mowed
to-day.!" " he asked of the old man.
" If God allows; the sun is getting low. Will there
be little sips of vodka for the boys? "
At the time of the mid-afternoon luncheon, when the
men rested again, and the smokers were lighting their
pipes, the elder announced to the "boys " : —
" Mow Mashkin Verkh — extra vodka ! "
" All right ! Come on, Sef ! Let 's tackle it lively,
1 Mashka's Hillside.
ANNA KARENINA 25
We '11 eat after dark. Come on ! " cried several voices ;
and, even while still munching their bread, they got to
work again.
" Well, boys, keep up good hearts ! " said Sef, setting
off almost on the run.
"Come, come!" cried the old man, hastening after
him and easily outstripping him. " I am first. Look
out!"
Old and young mowed as if they were racing ; and
yet, with all their haste, they did not spoil their work,
but the windrows lay in neat and regular swaths.
The triangle was finished in five minutes. The last
mowers had just finished their line, when the first, throw-
ing their kaftans over their shoulders, started down the
road to the Mashkin Verkh.
The sun was just hovering over the tree-tops, when,
with rattling cans, they came to the little wooded ravine
of Mashkin Verkh.
The grass here was as high as a man's waist, tender,
succulent, thick, and variegated with the flower called
Ivafi-da-Marya.
After a short parley, to decide whether to take it
across, or lengthwise, an experienced mower, Prokhor
Yermilin, a huge, black-bearded muzhik, went over it
first. He took it lengthwise, and came back in his
track; and then all followed him, going along the hill
above the hollow, and skirting the wood. The sun was
setting. The light was going behind the forest. The
dew was already falling. Only the mowers on the
ridge were in the sun ; but down in the hollow, where
the mist was beginning to rise, and behind the slope,
they went in fresh, dewy shade.
The work went on. The grass, cut off with a juicy
sound, and falling evenly, lay in high windrows. The
mowers came close together from all sides as the rows
converged, rattling their drinking-cups, sometimes hit-
ting their scythes together, working with joyful shouts,
rallying one another.
Levin still kept his place between the short young
man and the elder. The elder, with his sheepskin
26 ANNA KARENINA
jacket loosened, was as gay, jocose, free in his move>
ments as ever.
They kept finding birch-mushrooms in the woods,
lurking in the juicy grass and cut off by the scythes.
But the elder bent down whenever he saw one, and^
picking it, put it in his breast.
" Still another little present for my old woman," he
would say.
Easy as it was to mow the tender and soft grass, it
was hard to climb and descend the steep sides of the
ravine. But the elder did not let this appear. Always
lightly swinging his scythe, he climbed with short, firm
steps, and his feet shod in huge lapti, or bast shoes,
though he trembled with his whole body, and his drawers
were slipping down below his shirt, he let nothing escape
him, not an herb or a mushroom ; and he never ceased
to joke with Levin and the muzhiks.
Levin went behind him, and more than once felt that
he would surely drop, trying to climb, scythe in hand,
this steep hillside, where even unencumbered it would
be hard to go. But he persevered all the same, and did
what was required. He felt as if some interior force
sustained him.
CHAPTER VI
The men had mowed the Mashkin Verkh, they had
finished the last rows, and had taken their kaftans, and
were gayly going home. Levin mounted his horse and
regretfully took leave of his companions. On the hill-
top he turned round to take a last look ; but the even-
ing's mist, rising from the bottoms, hid them from
sight; but he could hear their loud, happy voices and
laughter and the sound of their clinging scythes.
SergyeY Ivanovitch had long finished dinner, and,
sitting in his room, was taking iced lemonade, and read-
ing the papers and reviews which had just come from
the post, when Levin, with his disordered hair matted
down on his brow with perspiration, and with his back
ANNA KARENINA ay
and chest black and wet, came into the room and joined
him, full of lively talk.
"Well! we mowed the whole meadow. Akh ! How
good, how delightful ! And how has the day passed
with you ? " he asked, completely forgetting the un-
pleasant conversation of the evening before.
"Ye saints! How you look!" exclaimed Sergyei
Tvanovitch, staring at first not over-pleasantly at his
brother. "There, shut the door, shut the door!" he
cried. " You 've certainly let in more than a dozen ! "
Sergyei" Ivanovitch could not endure flies ; and he
never opened his bedroom windows except at night, and
he made it a point to keep his doors always shut.
"Indeed, not a one! If I have, I '11 catch him!....
If you knew what fun I 've had ! And how has it gone
with you .'' "
" First-rate. But you don't mean to say that you
have been mowing all day ? You must be hungry as a
wolf. Kuzma has your dinner all ready for you."
" No ; I am not hungry. I ate yonder. But I 'm
going to polish myself up."
" All right, I '11 join you later," said SergyeT Ivano-
vitch, shaking his head and gazing at his brother. "Be
quick about it," he added, with a smile, arranging his
papers and getting ready to follow ; he also suddenly
felt enlivened, and was unwilling to be away from his
brother. "Well, but where were you during the
shower .-* "
" What shower ? Only a drop or two fell. I '11 soon
be back. And did the day go pleasantly with you .''
Well, that 's capital ! "
And Levin went to dress.
About five minutes afterwards the brothers met in the
dining-room. Although Levin imagined that he was not
hungry, and he sat down only so as not to hurt Kuzma's
feelings, yet when he once began eating, he found it ex-
cellent. Sergyei Ivanovitch looked at him with a smile.
" Oh, yes, there 's a letter for you," he said. " Kuzma,
go and get it. Be careful and see that you shut the
door."
28 ANNA KARENINA
The letter was from Oblonsky. Levin read it aloud.
It was dated from Petersburg : —
I have just heard from Dolly ; she is at Yergushovo ; every-
thing is going wrong with her. Please go and see her, and
give her your advice, — you who know everything. She will be
so glad to see you ! She is all alone, wretched. The mother-
in-law is still abroad with the family.
" This is admirable ! Certainly I will go to see her,"
said Levin. " Let us go together. She is a glorious
woman ; don't you think so ? "
" And they live near you .-• "
" About thirty versts, possibly forty. But there 's a
good road. We can cover it quickly."
" I shall be delighted," said SergyeY Ivanovitch,
smiling. The sight of his brother immediately filled
him with happiness. " Well there ! what an appetite you
have ! " he added, looking at his tanned, sunburned,
glowing face and neck, as he bent over his plate.
" Excellent ! You can't imagine how useful this
regime is against whims ! I am going to enrich medi-
cine with a new term, arbeitskur — labor-cure."
" Well , you don't seem to need it much, it seems to
me.
" Yes ; it is a sovereign specific against nervous
troubles."
" It must be looked into. I was coming to see you
mow, but the heat was so insupportable that I did not
go farther than the wood. I rested awhile, and then I
went to the village. I met your nurse there, and
sounded her as to what the muzhiks thought about you.
As I understand it, they don't approve of you. She
said, ' Not gentlemen's work.' I think that, as a gen-
eral thing, the peasantry form very definite ideas aboul;
what is becoming for the gentry to do, and they don't
like to have them go outside of certain fixed limits."
" Maybe ; but you see I have never enjoyed anything
more in all my life, and I do not do anybody any harm,
do I .'' " asked Levin. " And suppose it does n't please
them, what is to be done } Whose business is it .'' "
ANNA KARENINA 29
" Well, I see you are well satisfied with your day,"
replied Sergyef Ivanovitch.
" Very well satisfied. We mowed the whole meadow,
and I made such friends with an old man — the elder.
You can't imagine how he pleased me."
" Well, you are satisfied with your day ! So am I
with mine. In the first place, I solved two chess prob-
lems, and one was a beauty — it opened with a pawn.
I '11 show it to you. And then — I thought of our last
evening's discussion."
" What .-* Our last evening's discussion ? " said Levin,
half closing his eyes, and drawing a long breath with a
sensation of comfort after his dinner, and really unable
to recollect the subject of their discussion.
" I come to the conclusion that you are partly in the
right. The discrepancy in our views lies in the fact
that you assume personal interest as the motive power
of our actions, while I claim that every man who has
reached a certain stage of intellectual development must
have for his motive the public interest. But you are
probably right in saying that materially interested activity
would be more to be desired. Your nature is, as the
French say, prhnesautiere} You want strong, energetic
activity, or nothing."
Levin listened to his brother, but he did not under-
stand him at all, and did not try to understand. His
only fear was that his brother would ask him some
question, by which it would become evident that he was
not listening.
" How is this, my dear boy } " asked Sergyef Ivano-
vitch, touching him on the shoulder.
"Yes, of course. But, then, I don't set much store
on my own opinions," replied Levin, smiling like a
guilty child. His thought was, " What was our discus-
sion about .'' Of course ; I am right, and he is right, and
all is charming. But I must go the office and give my
orders." He arose, stretching himself and smiling.
SergyeY Ivanovitch also smiled.
" If you want to go out, let 's go together," he said,
1 Off-hand.
^o ANNA KARENINA
not wanting to be away from his brother, from whom
emanated such a spirit of freshness and good cheer.
" If you must go the office, I '11 go with you."
" O ye saints ! " exclaimed Levin, so loud that Ser-
geyif Ivanovitch was startled.
"What's the matter.?"
" Agafya Mikhai'lovna's hand," said Levin, striking
his forehead. " I had forgotten all about her."
" She is much better."
" Well, I must go to her, all the same. I '11 be back
before you get on your hat."
And he started down-stairs on the run, his heels
clattering on the steps.
CHAPTER VII
At the time Stepan Arkadyevitch was off to Peters-
burg to fulfil the most natural of obligations, without
which the service could not exist, unquestioned by all
functionaries, however unimportant for non-function-
aries — that of reporting to the ministry, and while
fulfilling this obligation, being well supplied with
money, was enjoying himself at the races and his
friends' datchas, Dolly, with the children, was on her
way to the country, in order to reduce the expenses as
much as possible. She was going to their country-
place at Yergushovo, an estate which had been a part
of her dowry. It was where the wood had been sold
in the spring, and was situated about fifty versts from
Levin's Pokrovsky.
The large old mansion at Yergushovo had long been
demolished, and the prince had contented himself with
enlarging and repairing one of the wings. Twenty
years before, when Dolly was a little girl, this wing
was spacious and comfortable, though, in the manner
of all wings, it stood sidewise as regarded the avenue
and the south. But now this wing was old and out of
repair. When Stepan Arkadyevitch went down in the
spring to sell the wood, Dolly asked him to look over
ANNA KARENINA 31
the house and have done to it whatever was necessary
Stepan Arkadyevitch, like all guilty husbands, being
deeply concerned for his wife's comfort, inspected the
house and made arrangements to have everything done
that, in his opinion, was necessary. In his opinion it
was necessary to have the furniture covered with cre-
tonne, to hang curtains, to clear up the garden, to plant
flowers, and to build a bridge across the pond ; but he
had overlooked many more essential matters, the lack
of which afterwards caused Darya Aleksandrovna great
annoyance.
Although Stepan strove to be a solicitous husband
and father, he never could realize that he had a wife
and children. His tastes remained those of a bachelor,
and to them he conformed. When he got back to Mos-
cow he proudly assured his wife that everything was
in prime order, that the house would be perfection, and
he advised her strongly to go there immediately. To
Stepan Arkadyevitch his wife's departure to the country
was delightful in many ways : it would be healthy for
the children, expenses would be lessened, and he would
be freer.
Darya Aleksandrovna, on her part, felt that a sum-
mer in the country was indispensable for the children,
and especially for the youngest little girl, who gained
very slowly after the scarlatina. Moreover, she would
be freed from petty humiliations, from little duns of the
butcher, the fish-dealer, and the baker, which troubled
her.
And above all the departure was very pleasant to her
for the especial reason that the happy thought had oc-
curred to her to invite her sister Kitty, who was coming
home from abroad about the middle of the summer and
had been advised to take some cold baths. ' Kitty wrote
her from the Spa that nothing would delight her so
much as to spend the rest of the summer with her at
Yergushovo, that place that was so full of happy child-
hood memories for both of them.
The first part of the time country life was very hard
for Dolly. She had lived there when she was a child,
ja ANNA KARENINA
and it had left the impression that it was a refuge from
all the trials of the city, and if it was not very elegant,
— and Dolly was willing to put up with that, — at least,
it would be comfortable and inexpensive, and the chil-
dren would be happy. But now, when she came there
as mistress of the house, she found that things were not
at all as she had expected.
* On the morning after their arrival, it began to rain
in torrents, and by night the water was leaking in the
corridor and the nursery, so that the little beds had to
be brought down into the parlor. It was impossible to
find a cook. Among the nine cows in the barn, accord-
ing to the dairywoman's report, some were going to
calve, some had their first calf, still others were too old,
and the rest had trouble with their udders, consequently
they could not have butter, or even milk for the chil-
dren. Not an egg was to be had. It was impossible
to find a hen. They had for roasting or broiling only
tough old purple roosters. No women were to be found
to do the washing — all were at work on the potatoes.
They could not go driving, because one of the horses
was restive and pulled at the pole. There was no
chance for bathing, because the bank of the river had
been trodden into a quagmire by the cattle, and was
visible from the road. They could not even go out
walking, because the cattle had got into the garden,
through the tumble-down fences, and there was a terri-
ble bull which bellowed, and therefore, of course, tossed
people with his horns. In the house, there was no
clothes-press. The closet doors either would not shut,
or flew open when any one passed. In the kitchen,
there were no pots or kettles. In the laundry, there
were no tubs, or even any scrubbing-boards for the
domestics.
At first, therefore, finding herself plunged into what
seemed to her such terrible straits, instead of the rest
and peace which she expected, Darya Aleksandrovna
was in despair. Though she exerted all her energies,
she felt the helplessness of her situation, and could not
keep back her tears.
ANNA KARENINA 33
The steward, who had been formerly a vakhmistr, or
quartermaster in the army, and on account of his good
looks and fine presence had been promoted by Stepan
Arkadyevitch from his place as Swiss, showed no sym-
pathy with Darya Aleksandrovna's tribulations, but sim-
ply said in his respectful way : —
" Nothing can be done, such a beastly peasantry ! "
and would not raise his hand to help.
The situation seemed hopeless ; but in the Oblonsky
household, as in all well-regulated homes, there was one
humble but still important and useful member, Matriona
Filimonovna. She calmed the baruinya, telling her that
" all would come out right," — that was her phrase, and
Matvei" had borrowed it from her, — and she went to
work without fuss and without bother.
She had made the acquaintance of the overseer's
wife, and on the very day of their arrival went to take
tea with her and the overseer under the acacias, and
discussed with them the state of affairs. A club was
quickly organized by Matriona Filimonovna under the
acacia ; and then through this club, which was com-
posed of the overseer's wife, the starosta, or village elder,
and the bookkeeper, the difficulties, one by one, disap-
peared, and within a week everything, as Matriona said.
" came out all right." The roof was patched up ; a
cook was found in a friend of the starosta's ; chickens
were bought ; the cows began to give milk ; the garden-
fence was repaired; the carpenter made a mangle, and
drove in hooks, and put latches on the closets, so that
they would not keep flying open ; the ironing-board, cov-
ered with a piece of soldiers' cloth, was stretched from
the dresser across the back of a chair, and the smell of
the ironing came up from below.
" There now," exclaimed Matriona Filimonovna, point-
ing to the ironing-board, "there is no need of worrying."
They even built a board bath-house. Lili began to
bathe, and Darya Aleksandrovna's hope of a comfortable,
if not a peaceful, country life became almost realized.
Peaceful life was impossible to Dar3^a Aleksandrovna
with six children. If one had an ill turn, another was
VOL. II. — 3
34 ANNA KARENINA
sure to follow suit, and something would happen to a
third, and the fourth would show signs of a bad dispo-
sition, and so it went on. Rarely, rarely came even
short periods of rest. But these very anxieties and
troubles were the only chances of happiness that Darya
Aleksandrovna had. If it had not been for this, she
would have been alone with her thoughts about a hus-
band who no longer loved her. But however cruel were
the anxieties caused by the fear of illness, by the ill-
nesses themselves, and by the grief a mother feels at
the sight of evil tendencies in her children, these same
children repaid her for her sorrows by their pleasures
and enjoyments. Her joys were so small that they
were almost invisible, like gold in sand ; and in trying
hours she saw only the sorrows, only the sand ; but
there were also happy moments, when she saw only the
joys, only the gold.
Now, in the quiet of the country, she became more
and more conscious of her joys. Often, as she looked
on them, she made unheard-of efforts to persuade her-
self that she was mistaken, that she had a mother's
partiality; but she could not help saying to herself that
she had beautiful children, all six, all of them charming
in their own ways, — such children as are rare to find.
And she rejoiced in them, and was proud of them.
CHAPTER Vni
Toward the beginning of June, when everything
was more or less satisfactorily arranged, she received
her husband's reply to her complaints about her do-
mestic tribulations. He wrote, asking pardon because
he had not remembered everything, and promised to
come just as soon as he could. This had not yet
come to pass ; and at the end of June Darya Alek-
sandrovna was still living alone in the country.
It was midsummer, Sunday, -the feast of St. Peter, and
Darya Aleksandrovna took all her children to the holy
communion. In her intimate philosophical discussions
ANNA KARENINA 3s
with her sister, her mother, or her friends, she often sur-
prised them by the breadth of her views on reHgious
subjects. A strange religious metempsychosis had
taken place in her, and she had come out into a faith
which had very little in common with ecclesiastical
dogmas. But in her family, — not merely for the sake
of example, but in answer to the requirements of her
own soul, — she conformed strictly to all the obligations
of the church, and now she was blaming herself because
her children had not been to communion since the be-
ginning of the year ; and, with the full approbation and
sympathy of Matriona Filimonovna, she resolved to ac-
complish this duty.
For several days beforehand she had been occupied
in arranging what the children should wear : and now
their dresses were arranged, all clean and in order ;
flutings and flounces were added, new buttons were put
on, and ribbons were gathered in knots. Only Tania's
frock, which had been intrusted to the English gover-
ness to alter, caused Dolly great vexation. The English
governess, in making the changes, put the seams in the
wrong place, cut the sleeves too short, and spoiled the
whole garment. It fitted so badly about the shoulders
that it was painful to look at her. But it occurred to
Matriona Filimonovna to piece out the waist and to
make a cape. The damage was repaired, but they
almost had a quarrel with the English governess.
By morning all was in readiness ; a'nd about ten
o'clock — the hour they had asked the father to give
them for the communion — the children, in their best
clothes and radiant with joy, were gathered on the steps
before the calash waiting for their mother.
Thanks to Matriona Filimonovna's watchful care, the
overseer's BuroY had been harnessed to the calash in
place of the restive Voron, and Darya Aleksandrovna,
who had taken considerable pains with her toilet, ap-
peared in a white muslin gown, and took her seat in the
vehicle.
Darya Aleksandrovna had arranged her hair and
dressed herself with care and with emotion. In former
^6 ANNA KARENINA
times she had liked to dress well so as to render herself
handsome and attractive ; but as she became older, she
lost her taste for adornment ; she saw how her beauty-
had faded. But now she once more found satisfaction
and a certain emotion in being attractively arrayed.
She did not now dress for her own sake, or to enhance
her beauty, but so that, as mother of these lovely chil-
dren, she might not spoil the general impression. And
as she cast a iinal glance at the mirror, she was satisfied
with herself. She was beautiful, — not beautiful in the
same way as at one time she liked to be at a ball, but
beautiful for the purpose which she had now in mind.
There was no one at church except the muzhiks
and the household servants ; but Darya Aleksandrovna
noticed, or thought she noticed, the attention that she
and her children attracted as they went along. The
children were handsome in their nicely trimmed dresses,
and still more charming in their behavior. Alosha, to
be sure, was not absolutely satisfactory ; he kept turn-
ing round, and trying to look at the tails of his little
coat, but nevertheless he was wonderfully pretty.
Tania behaved like a grown-up lady, and looked after
the younger ones. But Lili, the smallest, was fascinat-
ing in her nafve wonder at everything that she saw ;
and it was hard not to smile when, after she had re-
ceived the communion, she cried out in English,
^^ Please f some more!"
After they got home, the children felt the conscious-
ness that something solemn had taken place, and were
very quiet.
All went well in the house, till at lunch Grisha began
to whistle, and, what was worse than all, refused to
obey the English governess ; and he was sent away
without any tart. Darya Aleksandrovna would not
have allowed any punishment on such a day if she had
been there ; but she was obliged to uphold the gover-
ness, and confirm her in depriving Grisha of the tart.
This was a cloud on the general happiness.
Grisha began to cry, saying that Nikolinka also had
whistled but they did not punish him, and that he was
ANNA KARENINA 37
not crying about the tart, — that was no account, — but
because they had not been fair to him. This was very
disagreeable ; and Darya Aleksandrovna, after a con-
sultation with the English governess, decided to pardon
Grisha, and went to get him. But then, as she went
through the hall, she saw a scene which brought such
joy to her heart, that the tears came to her eyes, and
she herself forgave the culprit.
The little fellow was sitting in the drawing-room by
the bay-window ; near him stood Tania with a plate.
Under the pretext of wanting some dessert for her dolls,
she had asked the English governess to let her take her
portion of the pie to the nursery ; but, instead of this,
she had taken it to her brother. Grisha, still sobbing
over the unfairness of his punishment, was eating the
pie, and saying to his sister in the midst of his tears,
" Take some too .... we will eat to .... together."
Tania was full of sympathy for her brother, and had
the sentiment of having performed a generous action,
and the tears stood in her eyes, but she accepted the
portion and was eating it.
When they saw their mother, they were scared, but
they felt assured, by the expression of her face, that
they were doing right ; they both laughed, and, with
their mouths still full of pie, they began to wipe their
laughing lips with their hands, and their shining faces
were stained with tears and jam.
"Ye saints! my new white gown! Tania! Grisha!"
exclaimed the mother, endeavoring to save her gown,
but at the same time smiling at them with a happy,
beatific smile.
Afterwards the new frocks were taken off, and the
girls put on their old blouses and the boys their old
jackets; and the line'ika, or two-seated drozhky, was
brought out, and again, to the overseer's annoyance,
Buroi was at the pole, so that they might go out after
mushrooms, and to have a bath. It is needless to say
that enthusiastic shouts and squeals arose in the nurs-
ery, and did not cease until they actually got started for
their excursion.
38 ANNA KARENINA
They soon filled a basket with mushrooms ; even Lili
found some of the birch agarics. Always before Miss
Hull had found them and pointed them out to her ; but
now she herself found a huge birch shliupik, and there
was a universal cry of enthusiasm : —
" Lili has found a mushroom ! "
Afterwards they came to the river, left the horses
under the birch trees, and went to the bath-house. The
coachman, Terenti, leaving the animals to switch away
the flies with their tails, stretched himself out on the
grass in the shade of the birches, and smoked his pipe,
and listened to the shouts and laughter of the children
in the bath-house.
Though it was rather embarrassing to look after all
these children, and to keep them from mischief ; though
it was hard to remember, and not mix up all these
stockings, shoes, and trousers for so many different
legs, and to untie, unbutton, and then fasten again, so
many tapes and buttons, — still Darya Aleksandrovna
always took a lively interest in the bathing, looking on
it as advantageous for the children, and never feeling
happier than when engaged in this occupation. To fit
the stockings on those plump little legs ; to take the
younger ones by the hand, and dip their naked little
bodies into the water; to hear their cries, now joyful,
now terrified ; to see these breathless faces of those
splashing cherubimchiks of hers, with their scared or
sparkling eyes wide open with excitement, — all this
was a perfect delight to her.
When half of the children were dressed, some peas-
ant women, in Sunday attire, on their way to get herbs,
came along, and stopped timidly at the bath-house.
Matriona Filimonovna called to one of them, in order
to give her a sheet and a shirt to dry that had f^len
into the water ; and Darya Aleksandrovna talked with
the women. At first they laughed behind their hands,
not understanding her questions; but little by little
their courage returned and they began to chatter, and
they quite won Darya Aleksandrovna's heart by their
sincere admiration of the children.
ANNA KARENINA 39
" hit tui ! ain't she lovely, now ? White as sugar ! "
said one, pointing to Tania, and nodding her head.
"But thin...."
" Yes ; because she has been ill."
" Vish tui,'' said still another, pointing to the youngest
child.
" It seems you don't take him into the water, do
you .? "
" No," said Darya Aleksandrovna, proudly. " He is
only three months old."
" You don't say so ! " ^
"And have you any children.'' "
" I 've had four ; two are alive, a boy and a girl. I
weaned the youngest before Lent."
" How old is she .'' "
" Well, she is going into her second year."
" Why do you nurse her so long t "
" It 's our way : three springs." ....
And then the woman asked Darya Aleksandrovna
about the birth of her baby : did she have a hard time ?
where was her husband .<* would he come often ?
Darya Aleksandrovna was reluctant to part with the
peasant women, §0 delightful did she find the conversa-
tion with them, so perfectly identical were their interests
and hers. And it was more pleasant to her than any-
thing else to see how evidently all these women were
filled with admiration because she had so many and such
lovely children. The women made Darya Aleksandrovna
laugh, and offended Miss Hull for the very reason that
she was the cause of their unaccountable laughter. One
of the young women gazed with all her eyes at the Eng-
lish governess, who was dressing last ; and, when she
put on the third petticoat, she could not restrain her-
self any longer, but burst out laughing : —
" /s/t tui ! she put on one, and then she put on another,
and she has n't got them all on yet ! " and they all broke
into loud laughter.
40 ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER IX
Darya Aleksandrovna, with a kerchief on her head,
and surrounded by all her flock of bathers with wet hair,
was just drawing near the house when the coachman called
out, "Here comes somebarin, — Pokrovsky, it looks like."
Darya Aleksandrovna looked out, and, to her great
joy, saw that it was indeed Levin's well-known form in
gray hat and gray overcoat. She was always glad to
see him, but now she was particularly delighted, because
he saw'her in all her glory. No one could appreciate
her splendor better than Levin.
When he caught sight of her, it seemed to him that he
saw one of his visions of family life.
"You are like a brooding hen, Darya Aleksandrovna."
" Oh, how glad I am ! " said she, offering him her hand.
" Glad ! But you did not let me know. My brother
is staying with me ; I had a little note from Stiva, tell-
ing me you were here."
" From Stiva .'' " repeated Dolly, astonished.
"Yes. He wrote me that you had come into the
country, and thought that you would ajlow me to be of
some use to you," said Levin ; and, even while speaking,
he became confused, and breaking off suddenly, walked
in silence by the lineika, pulling off and biting linden
twigs as he went. It had occurred to him that Darya
Aleksandrovna would doubtless find it painful to have
a neighbor offer her the assistance which her husband
should have given. In fact, Darya Aleksandrovna was
displeased at the way in which Stepan Arkadyevitch
had thrust his domestic difficulties upon a stranger. She
immediately perceived that Levin felt this, and she felt
grateful to him for his tact and delicacy.
"Of course, I understood," said Levin, "that this
only meant that you would be glad to see me ; and I
was glad. Of course, I imagine that you, a city house-
keeper, find it uncivilized here ; and, if I can be of the
least use to you, I am wholly at your service."
" Oh, no ! " said Dolly. " At first it was rather hard,
ANNA KARENINA 41
but now everything has been beautifully arranged. 1
owe it all to my old nurse," she added, indicating
Matriona Filimonovna, who, perceiving that they were
speaking of her, gave Levin a pleasant, friendly smile.
She knew him, and knew that he would make a splen-
did husband for the young lady, and she wished that it
might be so.
" Will you get in ? We will squeeze up a little," said
she.
" No, I will walk. — Children, which of you will run
with me to get ahead of the horses .'' "
The children were very slightly acquainted with Levin,
and did not remember where they had seen him ; but
they had none of that strange feeling of timidity and
aversion which children are so often blamed for show-
ing toward grown-up persons who are not sincere. Pre-
tense in any person may deceive the shrewdest and most
experienced of men, but a child of very limited intelli-
gence detects it and is repelled by it, though it be most
carefully hidden.
Whatever faults Levin had, he could not be accused
of lack of sincerity , and consequently the children
showed him the same good-will that they had seen on
their mother's face. The two eldest instantly accepted
his invitation, and ran with him as they would have
gone with their nurse, or Miss Hull, or their mother.
Lili also wanted to go with him, and her mother in-
trusted her to him ; so he set her on his shoulder and
began to run with her.
" Don't be frightened, don't be frightened, Darya
Aleksandrovna," he said, laughing gayly. " I won't
hurt her or let her fall."
And when she saw his strong, agile, and, at the same
time, prudent and careful movements, the mother felt
reassured, and smiled as she watched him, with pleasure
and approval.
There in the country, with the children and with
Darya Aleksandrovna, whom he liked, Levin entered
into that boylike, happy frame of mind which was not
unusual with him, and which Darya Aleksandrovna
42 ANNA KARENINA
especially admired in him. He played with the children,
and taught them gymnastic exercises ; he jested with
Miss Hull in his broken English; and he told Darya
Aleksandrovna of his undertakings in the country.
After dinner, Darya Aleksandrovna, sitting alone with
him on the balcony, began to speak of Kitty.
" Did you know ? Kitty is coming here to spend the
summer with me ! "
"Indeed!" replied Levin, confused; and instantly, in
order to change the subject, he added : —
" Then I shall send you two cows, shall I .-* And if
you insist on paying, and have no scruples, then you
may give me five rubles a month."
" No, thank you. We shall get along."
" Well, then I am going to look at your cows ; and,
with your permission, I will give directions about feed-
ing them. Everything depends on that."
And Levin, in order to turn the conversation, ex-
plained to Darya Aleksandrovna the whole theory of
the proper management of cows, which was based on
the idea that a cow is only a machine for the conversion
of fodder into milk, and so on.
He talked on this subject, and yet he was passion-
ately anxious to hear the news about Kitty, but he was
also afraid to hear it. It was terrible to him to think that
his peace of mind, so painfully won, might be destroyed.
"Yes; but, in order to do all this, there must be some
one to superintend it ; and who is there ? " asked Darya
Aleksandrovna, not quite convinced.
Now that she carried on her domestic affairs so satis-
factorily, through Matriona Filimonovna, she had no
desire to make any changes ; moreover, she had no
faith in Levin's knowledge about rustic management.
His reasonings about a cow being merely a machine to
produce milk were suspicious. It seemed to her that
such theories would throw housekeeping into discord ; it
even seemed to her that it was all far simpler, that it
was sufficient, to do as Matriona Filimonovna did, — to
give Pestrukha and Byelopakha^ more fodder and drink,
^ Dapple and White-foot.
ANNA KARENINA 43
and to prevent the cook from carrying dish-water from
the kitchen to the cow, — that was clear. But the
theories about meal and grass for fodder were not clear,
but dubious ; but the principal point was, that she
wanted to talk about Kitty.
CHAPTER X
" Kitty writes me that she is longing for solitude
and repose," began Dolly, after a moment's silence.
" Is her health better.-* " asked Levin, with emotion.
" Thank the Lord, she is entirely well ! I never be-
lieved that she had any lung trouble."
" Oh ! I am very glad," said Levin ; and Dolly
thought that, as he said it, and then looked at her in
silence, his face had a pathetic, helpless expression.
" Tell me, Konstantin Dmitritch," said Darya Alek-
sandrovna with a friendly, and at the same time a rather
mischievous, smile, "why are you angry with Kitty?"
" I .-* I am not angry with her," said Levin.
" Yes, you are. Why did n't you come to see any of
us the last time you were in Moscow ? "
" Darya Aleksandrovna," he exclaimed, blushing to
the roots of his hair, " I am astonished that, with your
kindness of heart, you can think of such a thing ! How
can you not pity me when you know .... "
" What do I know .? "
" You know that I offered myself, and was rejected."
And as he said this, all the tenderness that he had felt
for Kitty a moment before changed in his heart into a
sense of anger at the memory of this injury.
" How could you suppose that I knew ? "
" Because everybody knows it."
" That is where you are mistaken. I suspected it,
but I knew nothing positive."
" Ah, well, and so you know now ! "
" All that I know is that there was something which
keenly tortured her, and that she has besought me
never to mention it. If she has not told me, then she
44 ANNA KARENINA
has not told any one. Now, what have you against
her ? Tell me ! "
" I have told you all that there was."
" When was it ? "
"When I was at your house the last time."
" But do you know .'* I will tell you," said Darya
Aleksandrovna. " I am sorry for Kitty, awfully sorry.
You suffer only in your pride .... "
"Perhaps so," said Levin, "but...."
She interrupted him.
" But she, poor little girl, I am awfully sorry for her.
Now I understand all ! "
"Well, Darya Aleksandrovna, excuse me," said he,
rising. ^' Prashchaite — good-by, Darya Aleksandrovna,
da svidanya ! "
" No ! wait ! " she cried, holding him by the sleeve ;
" wait ! sit down ! "
" I beg of you, I beg of you, let us not speak of this
any more," said Levin, sitting down again, while a ray
of that hope which he believed forever vanished flashed
into his heart.
" If I did not like you," said Dolly, and the tears
came into her eyes, "if I did not know you as I do .... "
The hope which he thought was dead awoke more
and more, filled Levin's heart, and took masterful pos-
session of it.
"Yes, I understand all now," said Dolly: "you can-
not understand this, you men, who are free in your
choice ; it is perfectly clear whom you love ; but a young
girl, with that feminine, maidenly reserve which is im-
posed on her, and seeing you men only at a distance, is
constrained to wait, and she is, and must be, so agitated
that she will not know what answer to give."
" Yes, if her heart does not speak.... "
" No ; her heart speaks, but think for a moment :
you men decide on some girl, you visit her home,
you watch, observe, and you make up your minds
whether you are in love or not, and then, when you
have come to the conclusion that you love her, you offer
yourselves.... "
ANNA KARENINA 45
" Well, now ! we don't always do that."
" All the same, you don't propose until your love
is fully ripe, or when you have made up your mind
between two possible choices. But the young girl
cannot make a choice. They pretend that she can
choose, but she cannot ; she can only answer * yes ' or
'no.'"
" Well ! the choice was between me and Vronsky,"
thought Levin ; and the resuscitated dead love in his
soul seemed to die a second time, giving his heart an
additional pang.
" Darya Aleksandrovna," said he, " thus one chooses
a gown or any trifling merchandise, but not love. Be-
sides, the choice has been made, and so much the
better .... and it cannot be done again."
"Oh! pride, pride! " said Dolly, as if she would ex-
press her scorn for the degradation of his sentiments
compared with those which only women are able to
comprehend. " When you offered yourself to Kitty,
she was in just that situation where she could not give
an answer. She was in doubt ; the choice was you or
Vronsky. She saw him every day ; you she had not
seen for a long time. If she had been older, it would
have been different ; if I, for example, had been in her
place, I should not have hesitated. He was always
distasteful to me, and so that is the end of it."
Levin remembered Kitty's reply : " JVo, tJiis cannot
be....''
" Darya Aleksandrovna," said he, dryly, " I am touched
by your confidence in me, but I think you are mistaken.
But whether I am right or wrong, this pride which you
so despise makes it impossible for me ever to think about
Katerina Aleksandrovna ; you understand ? utterly im-
possible."
" I will say only one thing more. You must know
that I am speaking to you of my sister, whom I love
as my own children. I don't say that she loves you,
but I only wish to say that her reply at that moment
amounted to nothing at all."
" I don't know," said Levin, leaping suddenly to his
46 ANNA KARENINA
feet. " If you only realized the pain that you cause me !
It is just the same as if you had lost a child, and they
came to you and said, ' He would have been like this,
like this, and he might have lived, and you would
have had so much joy in him But he is dead, dead,
dead.' " ....
" How absurd you are ! " said Darya Aleksandrovna,
with a melancholy smile at the sight of Levin's emotion.
" Well ! I understand it all better and better," she con-
tinued pensively. "Then you won't come to see us
when Kitty is here .'' "
" No, I will not. Of course I will not avoid Katerina
Aleksandrovna ; but, when it is possible, I shall en-
deavor to spare her the affliction of my presence."
" You are very, very absurd," said Darya Aleksan-
drovna, looking at him affectionately. "Well, then, let
it be as if we had not said a word about it. — What do
you want, Tania.'' " said she in French to her little girl,
who came running in.
"Where is my little shovel, mamma .-""
" I speak French to you, and you must answer in
French."
The child tried to speak, but could not recall the
French word for lopatka, shovel. Her mother whis-
pered it to her, and then told her, still in French, where
she should go to find it. This made Levin feel un-
pleasant.
Everything now seemed changed in Darya Aleksan-
drovna's household; even the children were not nearly
so attractive as before.
" And why does she speak French with the children ? "
he thought. " How false and unnatural ! Even the
children feel it. Teach them French, and spoil their
sincerity," he said to himself, not knowing that Darya
Aleksandrovna had twenty times asked the same ques-
tion, and yet, in spite of the harm that it did their
simplicity, had come to the conclusion that this was the
right way to teach them.
" But why are you in a hurry } Sit a little while
longer."
ANNA KARENINA 47
Levin stayed to tea ; but all his gayety was gone, and
he felt uncomfortable.
After tea he went out into the anteroom to give
orders about harnessing the horses ; and when he came
in he found Darya Aleksandrovna in great disturbance,
with flushed face, and tears in her eyes. During his
short absence an occurrence had ruthlessly destroyed
all the pleasure and pride that she took in her children.
Grisha and Tania had quarreled about a ball. Darya
Aleksandrovna, hearing their cries, ran to them, and
found them in a frightful state. Tania was pulling her
brother's hair ; and he, with face distorted with rage,
was pounding his sister with all his might. When
Darya Aleksandrovna saw it, something seemed to
snap in her heart. A black cloud, as it were, came
down on her life. She saw that these children of hers,
of whom she was so proud, were not only ordinary and
ill-trained, but were even bad, and inclined to the most
evil and tempestuous passions.
This thought troubled her so that she could not speak
or think, or even explain her sorrow to Levin.
Levin saw that she was unhappy, and he did his best
to comfort her, saying that this was not so very terrible,
after all, and that all children quarreled ; but in his
heart he said, " No, I will not bother myself to speak
French with my children. I shall not have such chil-
dren. There is no need of spoiling them, and making
them unnatural ; and they will be charming. No ! my
children shall not be like these."
He took his leave, and rode away ; and she did not
try to keep him longer.
CHAPTER XI
Toward the end of July, Levin received a visit from
the starosta of his sister's estate, situated about twenty
versts from Pokrovskoye. He brought the report about
the progress of affairs, and about the haymaking.
48 ANNA KARENINA
The chief income from his sister's estate came from
the meadows inundated in the spring. In former years
the muzhiks rented these hayfields at the rate of twenty
rubles a desyatin.^ But when Levin undertook the
management of this estate, and examined the hay-
crops, he came to the conclusion that the rent was too
low, and he raised it to the rate of twenty-five rubles
a desyatin. The muzhiks refused to pay this, and, as
Levin suspected, drove away other lessees. Then Levin
himself went there, and arranged to have the meadows
mowed partly by day laborers, partly on shares. His
muzhiks were greatly discontented with this new plan,
and did their best to thwart it ; but it was attended with
success, and even the very first year the yield from the
meadows was nearly doubled. The opposition of the
peasantry continued through the second and third sum-
mers, and the haymaking was conducted on the same
conditions.
But this year they had mowed the meadows on thirds,
and now the starosta had come to announce that the
work was done, and that he, fearing it was going to
rain, had summoned the bookkeeper and made the divis-
ion in his presence, and turned over the eighteen hay-
ricks which were the proprietor's share.
By the unsatisfactory answer to his question, how
much hay had been secured from the largest meadow,
by the starosta's haste in making the division without
orders, by the man's whole manner, Levin was induced
to think there was something crooked in the division of
the hay, and he concluded that it would be wise to go
and look into it.
Levin reached the estate just at dinner-time; and,
leaving his horse at the house of his old friend, the
husband of his brother's former nurse, he went to find
the old man at the apiary, hoping to obtain from him
some light on the question of the hay-crop.
The loquacious, beautiful-looking old man, whose
name was Parmenuitch, was delighted to see Levin,
showed him all about his husbandry, and told him all
^ About six dollars an acre.
ANNA KARENINA 49
the particulars about his bees, and how they swarmed
this year; but when Levin asked him about the hay, he
gave vague and unsatisfactory answers. This still more
confirmed Levin in his suspicions.
He went to the meadows, and, on examination of the
hayricks, found that they could not contain fifty loads
each, as the muzhiks said. So in order to give the peas-
ants a lesson he had one of the carts which they had
used as a measure to be brought, and ordered all the
hay from one of the ricks to be carried into the shed.
The hayrick was found to contain only thirty-two
loads. Notwithstanding the starosta's protestations
that the hay was measured right, and that it must
have got pressed down in the cart ; notwithstanding
the fact that he called God to witness that it was all
done in the most godly manner, — Levin insisted on it
that, as the division had been made without his orders,
he would not accept the hayricks as equivalent to fifty
loads each.
After long parleys, it was decided that the muzhiks
should take eleven of these hayricks for their share,
but that the master's should be measured over again.
The colloquy and the division of the hayricks lasted
until the mid-afternoon luncheon hour. When the last
of the hay had been divided. Levin, confiding the care
of the work to the bookkeeper, sat down on one of the
hayricks which was marked by a laburnum stake, and
enjoyed the spectacle of the meadows alive with the
busy peasantry.
Before him, at the bend of the river beyond the marsh,
he saw the peasant women in a variegated line, and
heard their ringing voices as they gossiped together,
while raking into long brown ramparts the hay scattered
over the bright green aftermath. Behind the women
came the men with pitchforks turning the windrows
into wide, high-swelling hayricks.
Toward the left across the meadow, already cleared
of the hay, came the creaking telyegas, or peasant carts,
and one by one, as the hayricks were lifted on the point
of monstrous forks, disappeared, and their places were
VOL. II. — 4
50 ANNA KARENINA
taken by the horse-wagons filled to overflowing with
the fragrant hay which almost hid the rumps of the
horses.
" Splendid hay-weather ! It '11 soon be all in," said
Parmenuitch, as he sat down near Levin. "Tea, not
hay ! It scatters like seed for the ducks when they
pitch it up." Then, pointing to a hayrick which the
men were demoHshing, the old man went on : " Since
dinner, pitched up a good half of it. — Is that the last .'* "
he shouted to a young fellow who, standing on the pole
of a cart, and shaking the ends of his hempen reins, was
driving by.
" The last, batyushka," shouted back the young fellow,
pulling in his horse. Then he looked down with a smile
on a happy-looking, rosy-faced woman who was sitting
on the hay in the telyega, and whipped up his steed
again.
" Who is that ? your son ? " asked Levin.
" My youngest," said the elder, with an expression
of pride.
" What a fine fellow ! "
"Not bad."
" Married yet ? "
** Yes, three years come next Filippovok." *
" So .'' And are there children ? "
" How ? children .-* For a whole year I have n't heard
anything about it ! and it's a shame," said the old man,
"Well, this is hay! Just tea!" he repeated, wishing to
change the subject.
Levin looked with interest at Vanka Parmenof and
his wife. They were loading on a hayrick near by.
Ivan Parmenof was standing on the wagon, arranging,
storing, and pressing down the fragrant hay which the
handsome goodwife handed up to him in great loads,
first in armfuls, then with the fork. The young woman
worked gayly, industriously, and skilfully. P'irst she
armnged it with her fork; then, with elastic and agile
motions, she exerted all her strength upon it ; and, stoop-
ing over, she lifted up the great armful, and standing
^ St, Philip's Day, November 14,
ANNA KARENINA 51
straight, with full bosom under the white chemise
gathered with a red girdle, she piled it high upon the
load.
Ivan, working as rapidly as he could, so as to relieve
her of every moment of extra work, stretched out his
arms wide, and caught up the load which she extended,
and trampled it down into the wagon. Then, raking up
what was left, the woman shook off the hay that had got
into her neck, and, tying a red handkerchief around her
broad white brow, she crept under the cart to fasten
down the load. Vanka showed her how the ropes
should be tied, and at some remark that she made burst
into a roar of laughter. In the expression on the faces
of both of them could be seen strong young love recently
awakened.
CHAPTER XII
The load was complete, and Ivan, jumping down,
took his gentle fat horse by the bridle, and joined the
file of telyegas going to the village. The young woman
threw her rake on top of the load, and, swinging her
arms, joined the other women, who had collected in a
group to sing. These women, with rakes on their
shoulders and dressed in bright colors, suddenly burst
forth into song with loud happy voices as they followed
the carts. One wild untrained voice would sing a verse
of the Pyesna, or folk-song, and when she had reached
the refrain, fifty other young, fresh, and powerful voices
would take it up simultaneously and repeat it to the
end.
The peasant women, singing their folk-song, came
toward Levin ; and it seemed to him that a cloud,
freighted with the thunder of gayety, was moving down
upon him. The thunder-cloud drew nearer, it took
possession of him, — and the haycock on which he
was reclining and the other haycocks and the carts
and the whole meadow and the far-off field moved
and swayed to the rhythm of this wild song, with its
accompaniment of whistles and shrill cries and clapping
52 ANNA KARENINA
of hands. This wholesome gayety filled him with envy;
he would have liked to take part in this expression of
joyous life; but nothing of the sort could he do, and he
was obliged to lie still and look and listen. When the
throng with their song had passed out of sight and
hearing, an oppressive feeling of melancholy came over
him at the thought of his loneliness, of his physical
indolence, of the hostility which existed between him
and this alien world.
Some of these very muzhiks, even those who had
quarreled with him about the hay, or those whom he
had injured, or those who had intended to cheat him,
saluted him gayly as they passed, and evidently did not
and could not bear him any malice, or feel any remorse,
or even remembrance that they had tried to defraud
him. All was swallowed up and forgotten in this sea
of joyous, universal labor. God gave the day, God gave
the strength ; and the day and the strength consecrated
the labor, and yielded their own reward. For whom
was the work.-' What would be the fruits of the work ?
These were secondary, unimportant considerations.
Levin had often looked with interest at this life, had
often experienced a feeling of envy of the people that
lived this life; but to-day, for the first time, especially
under the impression of what he had seen in the bear-
ing of Ivan Parmenof toward his young wife, he had
clearly realized that it depended on himself whether he
would exchange the burdensome, idle, artificial, selfish
existence which he led, for the laborious, simple, pure,
and delightful life of the peasantry.
The elder who had been sitting with him had already
gone home; the people were scattered; the neighbor-
ing villagers had already . reached their houses, but
those who lived at a distance were preparing to spend
the night in the meadow, and were getting ready for
supper.
Levin, without being noticed by the people, still re-
clined on the haycock, looking, listening, and thinking.
The peasantry gathered in the meadow scarcely slept
throughout the short summer night. At first gay gos-
ANNA KARENINA S3
sip and laughter were heard while they were eating;
then followed songs and jests again.
No trace of all the long, laborious day was left upon
them, except of its happiness. Just before the dawn
there was silence everywhere. Nothing could be heard
but the nocturnal sounds of the frogs ceaselessly croak-
ing in the marsh, and the horses whinnying as they
waited in the mist that rose before the dawn. Coming
to himself. Levin got up from the haycock, and, looking
at the stars, saw that the night had gone.
"Well! what am I going to do ? How am I going to
do this ? " he asked himself, trying to give a shape to
the thoughts and feelings that had occupied him during
this short night. All that he had thought and felt had
taken three separate directions. First, it seemed to him
that he must renounce his former mode of life, which
was useful neither to himself nor to any one else. This
renunciation seemed to him very attractive and was easy
and simple.
The second direction that his thoughts and feelings
took referred especially to the new life which he longed
to lead. He clearly realized the simplicity, purity, and
regularity of this new life, and he was convinced that
he should find in it that satisfaction, that calmness and
mental freedom, which he now felt the lack of so pain-
fully. The third line of thought brought him to the
question how he should effect the transition from the
old life to the new, and in this regard nothing clear
presented itself to his mind.
" I must have a wife. I must engage in work, and
have the absolute necessity of work. Shall I abandon Po-
krovskoye ? buy land .■' join the commune ? marry a peas-
ant woman .-* How can I do all this .'' " he again asked
himself, and no answer came. " However," he went
on, in his self-communings, " I have not slept all night,
and my ideas are not very clear. I shall reduce them
to order by and by. One thing is certain; this night
has settled my fate. All my former dreams of family
existence were rubbish, but this — all this is vastl)/
simpler and better." ....
54 ANNA KARENINA
" How lovely ! " he thought, as he gazed at the delicate
white curly clouds, colored like mother-of-pearl, which
floated in the sky above him. " How charming every,
thing has been this lovely night ! And when did that
shell have time to form.-* I have been looking this long
time at the sky, and nothing was to be seen — only two
white streaks. Yes ! thus, without my knowing it, my
views about life have been changed."
He left the meadow, and walked along the highway
that led to the village. A cool breeze began to blow,
and it became gray and melancholy. The somber mo-
ment was at hand which generally precedes the dawn,
the perfect triumph of light over the darkness.
Shivering with the chill, Levin walked fast, looking
at the ground.
" What is that .-* Who is coming .-• " he asked himself,
hearing the sound of bells. He raised his head. About
forty paces from him he saw, coming toward him on
the highway, on the grassy edge where he himself was
walking, a traveling carriage, drawn by four horses.
The pole-horses, to avoid the ruts, pressed close against
the pole ; but the skilful postilion, seated on one side of
the box, kept the pole directly over the rut, so that the
wheels kept only on the smooth surface of the road.
Levin was so interested in this that, without thinking
who might be coming, he only glanced heedlessly at the
carriage.
In one corner of the carriage an elderly lady was
asleep ; and by the window sat a young girl, evidently
only just awake, holding with both hands the ribbons
of her white bonnet. Serene and thoughtful, filled with
a lofty, complex life which Levin could not understand,
she was gazing beyond him at the glow of the morning
sky.
At the very instant that this vision flashed by him he
caught a glimpse of her frank eyes. She recognized
him, and a gleam of joy, mingled with wonder, lighted
up her face.
He could not be mistaken. Only she in all the world
had such eyes. In all the world there was but one
ANNA KARENINA 55
being who could concentrate for him all the light and
meaning of life. It was she ; it was Kitty. He judged
that she was on her way from the railway station to
Yergushovo.
And all the thoughts that had occupied Levin through
his sleepless night, all the resolutions that he had made,
vanished in a twinkling. Horror seized him as he re-
membered his dream of marrying a krestyanka — a
peasant wife ! In that carriage which flashed by him
on the other side of the road, and disappeared, was the
only possible answer to his life's enigma which had
tormented and puzzled him so long.
She was now out of sight ; the rumble of the wheels
had ceased, and scarcely could he hear the bells. The
barking of the dogs told him that the carriage was
passing through the village. And now there remained
only the empty fields, the distant village, and himself,
an alien and a stranger to everything, walking solitary
on the deserted highway.
He looked at the sky, hoping to find there still the
sea-shell cloud which he had admired, and which per-
sonified for him the movement of his thoughts and
feelings during the night. But in the sky there was
nothing that resembled the shell. There, at immeasur-
able heights, that mysterious change had already taken
place. There was no trace of the shell, but in its place
there extended over a good half of the heavens a carpet
of cirrus clouds sweeping on and sweeping on. The
sky was growing blue and luminous, and with the same
tenderness and also with the same unsatisfactoriness it
answered his questioning look.
" No," he said to himself, " however good this simple
and laborious life may be, I cannot bring myself to it
I love her.''
S6 ANNA KARENINA
CHAPTER XIII
No one except AlekseY Aleksandrovitch's most in-
timate friends suspected that this apparently cold and
sober-minded man had one weakness absolutely con-
tradictory to the general consistency of his character.
He could not look with indifference at a child or a
woman who was weeping. The sight of tears caused
him to lose his self-control, and destroyed for him his
reasoning faculties. The manager of his chancelry and
his secretary understood this, and warned women who
came to present petitions not to allow their feelings
to overcome them unless they wanted to injure their
prospects.
"He will fly into a passion, and will not listen to
you," they said. And it was a fact that the trouble
which the sight of weeping caused Aleksel Aleksandro-
vitch was expressed by hasty irritation. " I cannot, I
cannot do anything for you. Please leave me," he
would exclaim, as a general thing, in such cases.
When, on their way back from the races, Anna con-
fessed her relations with Vronsky, and, immediately
afterwards covering her face with her hands, burst into
tears, Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, in spite of his anger
against his wife, was conscious at the same time of that
deep, soul-felt emotion welling up which the sight of
tears always caused him. Knowing this, and knowing
that any expression of it would be incompatible with
the situation, he endeavored to restrain any sign of
agitation, and therefore he neither moved nor looked
at her; hence arose that strange appearance of death-
like rigidity in his face which so impressed Anna.
When they reached home, he helped her from the car-
riage ; and, having made a great effort, he left her with
ordinary politeness, saying only those words which would
not oblige him to follow any course. He simply said
that on the morrow he would let her know his decision.
His wife's words, confirming his worst suspicions,
caused a keen pain in his heart ; and this pain was
ANNA KARENINA 57
made still keener by the strange sensation of physical
pity for her, caused by the sight of her tears. Yet, as
he sat alone in his carriage, Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, to
his surprise and pleasure, was conscious of an absolute
freedom, not only from that sense of pity, but also from
the doubts and the pangs of jealousy which had of late
been tormenting him.
He experienced the feelings of a man who has been
suffering for a long time from the toothache. After
one terrible moment of agony, and the sensation of
something enormous — greater than the head itself —
which is wrenched out of the jaw, the patient, hardly
able to believe in his good fortune, suddenly discovers
that the pain that has been poisoning his life so long
has ceased, and that he can live and think and interest
himself in something besides his aching tooth.
This feeling Aleksef Aleksandrovitch now experi-
enced. The pain had been strange and terrible. But
now it was over. He felt that he could live again, and
think of something besides his wife.
"Without honor, without heart, without religion, an
abandoned woman ! I have always known this and I
have always seen it, though out of pity for her I tried
to shut my eyes to it," he said to himself.
And it really seemed to him that he had always seen
this. He recalled many details of their past lives ; and
things which had once seemed innocent in his eyes, now
clearly came up as proofs that she had always been
corrupt.
" I made a mistake when I joined my life to hers ; but
my mistake was not my fault, and therefore I ought not
to be unhappy. I am not the guilty one," said he,
" but she is. But I have nothing more to do with her.
She does not exist for me."....
All that would befall her as well as his son, toward
whom also his feelings underwent a similar change, now
ceased to occupy him. The only thing that did occupy
him now was the question how to make his escape from
this wretched crisis in a manner at once wise, correct,
and honorable for himself, and having cleared himself
58 ANNA KARENINA
from the mud with which she had spattered him by her
fall, how he would henceforth pursue his own path of
honorable, active, and useful life.
" Must I make myself wretched because a wretched
woman has committed a crime ? All I want is to find
the best way out from this situation to which she has
brought me. And I will find it," he added, getting
more and more indignant. " I am not the first, nor the
last."
And not speaking of the historical examples, begin-
ning with La Belle Helene of Menelaus, which had
recently been brought to all their memories by Offen-
bach's opera, Alekseif Aleksandrovitch went over in his
mind a whole series of contemporary episodes, where
husbands of the highest position had been obliged to
mourn the faithlessness of their wives.
" Daryalof, Poltavsky, Prince Karibanof, Count Pa-
skudin, Dramm, .... yes, even Dramm, honorable, indus-
trious man as he is, .... Semenof, Chagin, Sigonin.
Admit that they cast unjust ridicule on these men ; as
for me, I never saw anything except their misfortune,
and I always pitied them," said Alekseif Aleksandro-
vitch to himself, although this was not so, and he had
never sympathized with misfortune of this sort, and had
only plumed himself the more as he had heard of wives
deceiving their husbands.
" This is a misfortune which is likely to strike any
one, and now it has struck me. The only thing is to
know how to find the best way of settling the difficulty."
And he began to recall the different ways in which
these men, finding themselves in such a position as he
was, had behaved.
" Daryalof fought a duel .... "
Dueling had often been a subject of consideration
to Alekset Aleksandrovitch when he was a young man,
and for the reason that physically he was a timid man
and he knew it. He could not think without a shudder
of having a pistol leveled at him, and never in his life
had he practised with firearms. This instinctive horror
had in early life caused him often to think about duel*
ANNA KARENINA 59
ing and to imagine himself obliged to expose his life to
this danger.
Afterward, when he had attained success and a high
social position, he had got out of the way of such
thoughts; but his habit of mind now reasserted itself,
and his timidity, owing to his cowardice, was so great
that Alekseif Aleksandrovitch long deliberated about
the matter, turning it over on all sides, and questioning
the expediency of a duel, although he knew perfectly
well that in any case he would never fight.
" Undoubtedly the state of our society is still so sav-
age," he said, — "though it is not so in England, —
that very many .... "
And in these many, to whom such a solution was sat-
isfactory, there were some for whose opinions Alekseif
Aleksandrovitch had the very highest regard. " Look-
ing at the duel from its good side, to what result does it
lead .'' Let us suppose that I send a challenge ! "
And Aleksef Aleksandrovitch went on to draw a
vivid picture of the night that he would spend after the
challenge ; and he imagined the pistol aimed at him,
and shuddered, and realized that he could never do
such a thing,
" Let us suppose that I challenge him to a duel ; let us
suppose that I learn how to shoot," he forced himself
to think, " that I am standing, that I pull the trigger,"
he said to himself, shutting his eyes, " and it happens
that I kill him ; " and he shook his head, to drive away
these absurd notions.
" What sense would there be in causing a man's death,
in order to settle my relations to a sinful woman and her
son } Even then I should have to decide what I ought
to do with her. But suppose — and this is vastly more
likely to happen — that I am the one killed or wounded.
I, an innocent man, the victim, killed or wounded .? Still
more absurd ! But, moreover, would not the challenge
to a duel on my part be a dishonorable action, certain as
I am beforehand that my friends would never allow me
to fight a duel .-' would never permit the life of a gov-
ernment official, who is so indispensable to Russia, to
6o ANNA KARENINA
be exposed to danger ? What would happen ? This
would happen, that I, knowing in advance that the
matter would never result in any danger, should seem
to people to be anxious to win notoriety by a challenge.
It would be dishonorable, it would be false, it would be
an act of deception to others and to myself. A duel is
not to be thought of, and no one expects it of me. My
sole aim should be to preserve my reputation, and not
to suffer any unnecessary interruption of my activity."
The service of the State, always important in the eyes
of Alekseit Aleksandrovitch, now appeared to him of
extraordinary importance.
Having decided against the duel, Aleksei Aleksandro-
vitch began to discuss the question of divorce — a second
expedient which had been employed by several of the
men whom he had in mind. Calling to mind all the
well-known examples of divorce — and there had been
many in the very highest circles of society, as he well
knew — he could not name a single case where the aim
of the divorce had been such as he proposed. The
husband in each case had sold or given up the faithless
wife ; and the guilty party, who had no right to a second
marriage, had entered into relations, imagined to be
sanctioned, with a new husband.
Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch saw that, in his case at least,
legal divorce, whereby the faithless wife would be re-
pudiated, was impossible. He saw that the complicated
conditions of his life precluded the possibility of those
coarse proofs which the law demanded for the establish-
ment of a wife's guilt; he saw that the distinguished
refinement of his life precluded the public use of such
proofs, even if they existed, and that the public use of
these proofs would cause him to fall lower in public
opinion than the guilty wife.
Divorce could only end in a scandalous lawsuit, which
would be a godsend to his enemies and to lovers of
gossip, and would degrade him from his high position
in society. His principal object, the determination of
his position with the least possible confusion, would not
be attained by a divorce.
ANNA KARENINA 6i
Divorce, moreover, broke off all intercourse between
wife and husband, and united her to her paramour.
Now in AlckseY Aleksandrovitch's heart, in spite of the
scornful indifference which he affected to feel toward
his wife, there still remained one very keen sentiment,
and that was his unwillingness for her, unhindered, to
unite her lot with Vronsky, so that her fault would turn
out to her advantage.
This possible contingency was so painful to Aleksel
Aleksandrovitch that, merely at the thought of it, he
bellowed with mental pain ; and he got up from his
seat, changed his place in the carriage, and for a long
time, darkly scowling, wrapped his woolly plaid around
his thin and chilly legs.
" Besides formal divorce," he said to himself, as,
growing a little calmer, he continued his deliberations,
" it would be possible to act as Karibanof, Paskudin,
and that gentle Dramm have done ; that is to say, I
could separate from my wife." But this measure had
almost the same disadvantages as the other : it was
practically to throw his wife into Vronsky's arms.
"No; it is impossible — impossible," he said aloud,
again trying to wrap himself up in his plaid. " I cannot
be unhappy, but neither she nor he ought to be happy."
The feeling of jealousy which had tormented him
while he was still ignorant had passed away when by
his wife's words the aching tooth had been pulled ; but
this feeling was replaced by a different one, — the desire
not only that she should not triumph, but that she should
receive the reward for her sin. He did not express it,
but in the depths of his soul he desired that she should
be punished for the way in which she had destroyed his
peace and honor.
After once more passing in review the conditions of
the duel, the divorce, and the separation, and once more
rejecting them, Aleksei Aleksandrovitch came to the
conclusion that there was only one way to escape from
his trouble, and that was to keep his wife under his pro-
tection, shielding his misfortune from the eyes of the
world, employing all possible means to break off the
62 ANNA KARENINA
illicit relationship, and, above all — though he did not
avow it to himself — punishing his wife's fault.
" I must let her know that, in the cruel situation into
which she has brought our family, I have come to the
conclusion that the status quo is the only way that seems
advisable for both sides, and that I will agree to pre-
serve it under the strenuous condition that she on her
part fulfil my will, and break off all relations with her
paramour."
For the bolstering of this resolution when once he
had finally adopted it, Alekself Aleksandrovitch brought
up one convincing argument : " Only by acting in this
manner do I conform absolutely with the law of reli-
gion," said he to himself ; " only by this reasoning do
I refuse to send away the adulterous woman ; and I
give her the chance of amending her ways, and likewise,
— painful as it will be to me, — I consecrate a part of
my powers to her regeneration and salvation."
Though Aleksef Aleksandrovitch knew that he could
have no moral influence over his wife, and that the
attempts which he should make to reform his wife would
have no other outcome than falsehood ; although during
the trying moments that he had been living, he had not
for an instant thought of finding his guidance in religion,
— yet now, when he felt that his determination was in
accordance with religion, this religious sanction of his
resolution gave him full comfort and a certain share of
satisfaction. He was consoled with the thought that in
such a trying period of his life no one would have the
right to say that he had not acted in conformity to the
religion whose banner he bore aloft in the midst of cool-
ness and indifference.
As he went over in his mind the remotest contingen-
cies, Alekseif Aleksandrovitch even saw no reason why
his relations with his wife should not remain pretty
much as they had always been. Of course, it would be
impossible for him to feel great confidence in her ; but
he saw no reason why he should ruin his whole life, and
suffer personally, because she was a bad and faithless
wife.
ANNA KARENINA ^3
"Yes, time will pass," he said to himself, "time which
solves all problems ; and our relations will be brought
into the old order, so that I shall not feel the disorder
that has broken up the current of my life. She must
be unhappy, but I am not to blame, and so I do not see
why I must be unhappy too."
CHAPTER XIV
Alekse'i Aleksandrovitch during his drive back to
Petersburg not only fully decided on the line of conduct
which he should adopt, but even composed in his head
a letter to be sent to his wife. When he reached his
Switzer's room, he glanced at the official papers and
letters which had been brought from the ministry, and
ordered them to be brought into the library.
" Shut the door, and let no one in," said he in reply to
a question of the Swiss, emphasizing the last words —
nye prinimaf — let no one in — with some satisfaction,
which was an evident sign that he was in a better state
of mind.
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch walked up and down the
library once or twice, and then, coming to his huge
writing-table, on which his lackey, before going out,
had placed six lighted candles, he cracked his fingers
and sat down, and began to examine his writing-mate-
rials. Then, leaning his elbow on the table, he bent his
head to one side, and after a moment of reflection he
began to write without the slightest hesitancy. He
wrote in French without addressing her by name, em-
ploying the pronoun vous, which has less coldness than
the corresponding Russian word, vtii, has. He wrote : —
At our recent interview, I expressed the intention of com-
municating to you my resolution concerning the subject of our
conversation. Having carefully taken everything into considera-
tion, I am writing now with the view of fulfilling my promise.
This is my decision : whatever your conduct may have been,
I do not acknowledge that I have the right to break the bonds
which a Power Supreme has consecrated. The family cannot
64 ANNA KARENINA
be broken up through a caprice, an arbitrary act, even through
the crime of one of the parties ; and our Hves must remain
unchanged. This must be so for my sake, for your sake, for the
sake of our son. I am fully persuaded that you have been re-
pentant, that you still feel repentant for the deed that obliges
me to write you ; that you will cooperate with me in destroy-
ing root and branch the cause of our estrangement and in
forgetting the past.
In case this be not so, you yourself must understand what
awaits you and your son. In regard to all this I hope to have
a more specific conversation at a personal interview. As the
summer season is nearly over, I beg of you to come back to
Petersburg as soon as possible — certainly not later than Tues-
day. All the necessary measures for your return hither will be
taken. I beg you to take notice that I attach a very particu-
lar importance to your attention to my request.
A. Karenin.
P.S. I inclose in this letter money, which you may need
at this particular time.
He reread his letter, and was satisfied vi'ith it — espe-
cially with the fact that he had thought of sending the
money. There was not an angry word, not a reproach,
neither was there any condescension in it. The essen-
tial thing was the golden bridge for their reconciliation.
He folded his letter, smoothed it with a huge paper-
cutter of massive ivory, inclosed it in an envelop to-
gether with the money, and rang the bell, feeling that
sense of satisfaction which the use of his well-ordered,
perfect epistolary arrangements always gave him.
" Give this letter to the courier for delivery to Anna
Arkady evna at the datcha to-morrow," said he, and arose.
" I will obey your excellency.^ Will you have tea
here in the library .'' "
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch ordered tea brought to him
in the library ; and then, still playing with the paper-
cutter, he went toward his arm-chair, near which were a
shaded lamp and a French work on cuneiform inscrip-
tions which he had begun.
^ VasAe prevaskhodityelstvo.
ANNA KARENINA 65
Above the chair, in an oval gilt frame, hung a por-
trait of Anna, the excellent work of a distinguished
painter. Aleksei Aleksandrovitch looked at it. The
eyes, as inscrutable as they had been on the evening of
their attempted explanation, looked down at him ironi-
cally and insolently. Everything about this remarkable
portrait seemed to AlekseT Aleksandrovitch insupport-
ably insolent and provoking, from the black lace on her
head and her dark hair, to the white, beautiful hand
and the ring-finger covered with jeweled rings.
After gazing at this portrait for a moment, Aleksei
Aleksandrovitch shuddered, his lips trembled, and with
a " brr" he turned away. Hastily sitting down in his
arm-chair, he opened his book. He tried to read, but he
could not regain the keen interest which he had felt be-
fore in the cuneiform inscriptions. His eyes looked at
the book, but his thoughts were elsewhere. He was
thinking, not of his wife, but of a complication which
had recently arisen in important matters connected with
his official activity, and which at present formed the
chief interest of his service. He felt that he was more
deeply than ever plunged into this complicated affair,
and that he could without self-conceit claim that the
idea which had originated in his brain was bound to
disentangle the whole difficulty, to confirm him in his
official career, put down his enemies, and thus enable
him to do a signal service to the State. As soon as his
servant had brought his tea, and left the room, AlekseK
Aleksandrovitch got up and went to his writing-table.
Pushing to the center of it a portfolio which contained
papers relating to this affair, he seized a pencil from
the stand, and, with a faintly sarcastic smile of self-sat-
isfaction, buried himself in the perusal of the documents
relative to the complicated business under considera-
tion.
The complication was as follows: The distinguish-
ing trait of Alekser Aleksandrovitch as a government
official, — the one characteristic trait peculiar to him
alone, though it must mark every progressive chinov-
nik, — the trait which had contributed to his success
VOL. II. — 5
66 ANNA KARENINA
no less than his eager ambition, his moderation, his
uprightness, and his self-confidence, was his detesta-
tion of "red tape," and his sincere desire to avoid,
as far as he could, unnecessary writing, and to go
straight on in accomplishing needful business with all
expedition and economy. It happened that, in the
famous Commission of the 14th of June, a project was
mooted for the irrigation of the fields in the government
of Zarai, which formed a part of Aleksei" Aleksandro-
vitch's jurisdiction ; and this project offered a striking
example of the few results obtained by official corre-
spondence and expenditure.
Aleksef Aleksandrovitch knew that it was a worthy
object. The matter of the irrigation of the fields in the
government of Zaraif had come to him by inheritance
from his predecessor in the ministry, and, in fact, had al-
ready cost much money and brought no results. When
Aleksei Aleksandrovitch entered the ministry, he had
perceived this, and had wanted immediately to put his
hand to this work ; but at first he did not feel himself
strong enough and perceived that it touched too many
interests and was imprudent, and afterward, having
become involved in other matters, he entirely forgot
about it.
The fertilization of the ZaraY fields, like all things,
went in its own way by force of inertia. Many people
got their living through it, and one family in particu-
lar, a very agreeable and musical family — all of the
daughters of which played on stringed instruments.
Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch knew this family, and had
been nuptial godfather ^ when one of the elder daugh-
ters was married.
The opposition to this affair, raised by his enemies in
another branch of the ministry, was unjust, in the opin-
ion of Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, because in every min-
istry there are similar cases which by a well-known rule
of official etiquette no one ever bothers himself about.
But now, since they had thrown down the gauntlet, he
1 Posazhonnui otyets, — a man who takes the father's place in the Rus-
sian wedding ceremuny.
ANNA KARENINA 67
had boldly accepted the challenge and asked for the
appointment of a special commission for examining and
verifying the labors of the commissioners on the fertili-
zation of the Zarai' fields ; and this did not prevent him
from also keeping these gentlemen busy in other ways.
He had also demanded a special commission for in-
vestigating the status and organization of the foreign
populations.
This last question had likewise been raised by the
Commission of June 14, and was energetically supported
by Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, on the ground that no de-
lay should be allowed in relieving the deplorable situa-
tion of these alien tribes.
In committee this matter gave rise to the most lively
discussions among the ministries. The ministry hostile
to Aleksef Aleksandrovitch proved that the position of
the foreign populations was perfectly flourishing; that
to meddle with them would be to injure their well-being;
and that, if any fault could be found in regard to the
matter, it was due to the neglect of Aleksei Aleksandro-
vitch and his ministry, in not carrying out the measures
prescribed by law.
Now Aleksef Aleksandrovitch had made up his mind
to demand : first, the appointment of a new committee,
whose duty should be to study on the spot the condi-
tion of the foreign populations ; secondly, in case their
condition should be found such as the official data in
the hands of the committee represented, that a new
scientific commission should be sent to study into the
causes of this sad state of things, with the aim of set-
tling it from the (a) political, (d) administrative, (c)
economical, (d) ethnographical, (e) physical, and (/')
religious point of view ; thirdly, that the hostile min-
istry should be required to furnish the particulars in
regard to the measures taken during the last ten years
to relieve the wretched situation in which these tribes
were placed ; and fourthly and finally, that this minis-
try should explain the fact that they had acted in
absolute contradiction to the fundamental and organic
law, Volume T, page 18, with reference to Article 36,
68 ANNA KARENINA
as was proved by an act of the committee under num-
bers 17,015 and 18,308 of the 17th of December, 1863,
and the 19th of June, 1864.
A flush of animation covered Aleksei Aleksandro-
vitch's face as he rapidly wrote down for his own use
a digest of these thoughts. After he had covered a
sheet of paper, he rang a bell, and sent a messenger
to the director of the chancelry, asking for a few data
which were missing. Then he got up, and began to
walk up and down the room, looking again at the
portrait with a frown and a scornful smile. Then he
resumed his book about the cuneiform inscriptions, and
found that his interest of the evening before had come
back to him. He went to bed about eleven o'clock ;
and as he lay, still awake, he passed in review the affair
with his wife, and it no longer appeared to him in the
same gloomy aspect.
CHAPTER XV
Though Anna had obstinately and angrily contra-
dicted Vronsky when he told her that her position was
impossible, yet in the bottom of her heart she felt that
it was false and dishonorable, and she longed with all
her soul to escape from it. When, in a moment of agi-
tation, she avowed all to her husband as they were re-
turning from the races, notwithstanding the pain which
it cost her, she felt glad. After Aleksei" Aleksandro-
vitch left her, she kept repeating to herself that she
was glad, that now all was explained, and that hence-
forth there would be at least no more need of falsehood
and deception. It seemed to her indubitable that now
her position would be henceforth determined. It might
be bad, but it would be definite, and there would be an
end to lying and equivocation. The pain which her
words had cost her husband and herself would have
its compensation, she thought, in the fact that now all
would be definite.
That very evening Vronsky came to see her, but she
ANNA KARENINA 69
did not tell him what had taken place between her hus-
band and herself, although it was needful to tell him, in
order that the affair might be definitely settled.
The next morning, when she awoke, her first memory
was of the words that she had spoken to her husband ;
and they seemed to her so odious, that she could not im-
agine now how she could have brought herself to say
such strange brutal words, and she could not conceive
what the result of them would be. But the words were
irrevocable, and Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch had departed
without replying.
" I have seen Vronsky since, and I did not tell him.
Even at the moment he went away, I wanted to hold
him back and to tell him ; but I postponed it because I
felt how strange it was that I did not tell him at the
first moment. Why did I have the desire, and yet not
speak .-* "
And, in reply to this question, the hot flush of shame
kindled in her face. She realized that it was shame that
kept her from speaking. Her position, which the even-
ing before had seemed to her so clear, suddenly pre-
sented itself as very far from clear, as inextricable. She
began to fear the dishonor about which she had not
thought before. When she considered what her hus-
band might do to her, the most terrible ideas came to
her mind. It occurred to her that at any instant the
steward ^ might appear to drive her out of house and
home, and that her shame might be proclaimed to all
the world. She asked herself where she could go if
they drove her from home, and she found no answer.
When she thought of Vronsky, she imagined that he
did not love her, and that he was already beginning to
tire of her, and that she could not impose herself on
him, and she felt angry with him. It seemed to her
that the words which she spoke to her husband, and
which she incessantly repeated to herself, were spoken
so that everybody could hear them, and had heard them.
She could not bring herself to look in the faces of those
with whom she lived. She could not bring herself to
^ Upravlyayushchy.
70 ANNA KARENINA
ring for her maid, and still less to go down and meet
her son and his governess.
The maid came, and stood long at the door, listening ;
finally she decided to go to her without a summons. Anna
looked at her questioningly, and in her terror she blushed.
The maid apologized for coming, saying that she thought
she heard the bell. She brought a gown and a note.
The note was from Betsy. Betsy reminded her that
Liza Merkalova and the Baroness Stolz with their
adorers, Kaluzhsky and the old man Stremof , were com-
ing to her house that morning for a game of croquet.
" Come and look on, please, as a study of manners. I
shall expect you," was the conclusion of the note.
Anna read the letter, and sighed profoundly.
" Nothing, nothing, I need nothing," said she to An-
nushka, who was arranging the brushes and toilet articles
on her dressing-table. " Go away. I will dress myself
immediately, and come down. I need nothing."
Annushka went out ; yet Anna did not begin to dress,
but sat in the same attitude, with bent head and folded
hands ; and occasionally she would shiver, and begin to
make some gesture, to say something, and then fall back
into Hstlessness again. She kept saying, '■'■ Bozhe moi !
Bozhe moi' /"^ hut the words had no meaning in her
mind. The thought of seeking a refuge from her situa-
tion in religion, although she never doubted the faith in
which she had been trained, seemed to her as strange as
to go and ask help of Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch him-
self. She knew beforehand that the refuge offered by
religion was possible only by the absolute renunciation
of all that constituted for her the meaning of life. She
suffered, and was frightened besides, by a sensation that
was new to her experience hitherto, and which seemed
to her to take possession of her inmost soul. She seemed
to feel double, just as sometimes eyes, when weary, see
double. She knew not what she feared, what she de-
sired. She knew not whether she feared and desired
what had passed or what was to come, and what she
desired she did not know.
1 Literally, « My God."
ANNA KARENINA 71
" Oh ! what am I doing ? " she cried, suddenly feel-
ing a pain in both temples ; and she discovered that
she had taken her hair in her two hands, and was pull-
ing it. She got up, and began to walk the floor.
'• The coffee is served, and Mavizel and Serozha are
waiting," said Annushka, coming in again, and finding
her mistress in the same condition as before.
" Serozha .'' what is Serozha doing," suddenly asked
Anna, remembering, for the first time that morning, the
existence of her son,
" He has been naughty, I think," said Annushka,
with a smile.
" How naughty .-' "
"You had some peaches in the corner cupboard; he
took one, and ate it on the sly, it seems."
The thought of her son suddenly called Anna from
the impassive state in which she had been sunk. She
remembered the partly sincere, though somewhat ex-
aggerated, role of devoted mother, which she had taken
on herself for a number of years, and she felt with joy
that in this relationship she had a standpoint indepen-
dent of her relation to her husband and Vronsky.
This standpoint was — her son. In whatever situation
she might be placed, she could not give him up. Her
husband might drive her from him, and put her to
shame ; Vronsky might turn his back on ' her, and
resume his former independent life, — and here again
she thought of him with a feeling of anger and reproach,
— but she could not leave her son. She had an aim
in life ; and she must act, act so as to safeguard this
relation toward her son, so that they could not take
him from her. She must act as speedily as possible
before they took him from her. She must take her
son and go off. That was the one thing which she
now had to do. She must calm herself, and get away
from this tormenting situation. The very thought of
an action having reference to her son, and of going
away with him anywhere, anywhere, already gave her
consolation.
She dressed in haste, went down-stairs, and with firm
72 ANNA KARENINA
steps entered the drawing-room, where, as usual, she
found lunch ready, and Serozha and the governess wait-
ing for her. Serozha, all in white, was standing near
a table under the mirror, with the expression of con-
centrated attention which she knew so well, and in
which he resembled his father. Bending over, he was
busy with some flowers which he had brought in.
The governess had a very stern expression. Serozha,
as soon as he saw his mother, uttered a sharp cry,
which was a frequent custom of his, — " Ah, mamma ! "
Then he stopped, undecided whether to throw down
the flowers and run to his mother, and let the flowers
go, or to finish his bouquet and take it to her.
The governess bowed, and began a long and circum-
stantial account of the naughtiness that Serozha had
committed ; but Anna did not hear her. She was
thinking whether she should take her with them.
" No, I will not," she decided; "I will go alone with
my son."
"Yes, that was very naughty," said Anna; and, tak-
ing the boy by the shoulder, she looked with a gentle,
not angry, face at the confused but happy boy, and
kissed him. " Leave him with me," said she to the
wondering governess ; and, not letting go his arm, she
sat down at the table where the coffee was waiting.
" Mamnia .... I .... I .... did n't ...." stammered Serozha,
trying to judge by his mother's expression what fate was
in store for him for having pilfered the peach.
"Serozha," she said, as soon as the governess had
left the room, " that was naughty. You will not do it
again, will you .-'.... Do you love me .-* "
She felt that the tears were standing in her eyes.
" Why can I not love him ? " she asked herself, study-
ing the boy's frightened and yet happy face. " And
can he join with his father to punish me ? Will he not
have pity on me .-• "
The tears began to course down her face ; and, in
order to hide them, she rose up quickly, and hastened,
almost ran, to the terrace.
Clear, cool weather had succeeded the stormy rains
ANNA KARENINA 73
of the last few days. In spite of the warm sun which
shone on the thick foliage of the trees, it was cool in
the shade.
She shivered both from the coolness and from the
sentiment of fear which in the cool air seized her with
new force.
"Go, go and find Mariette," said she to Serozha, who
had followed her ; and then she began to walk up and
down on the straw carpet which covered the terrace.
" Will they not forgive me .'* " she asked herself. "Will
they not understand that all this could not possibly have
been otherwise .-* "
As she stopped and looked at the top of the aspens
waving in the wind, with their freshly washed leaves
glittering brightly in the cool sunbeams, it seemed to
her that they would not forgive her, that all, that every-
thing, would be as pitiless toward her as that sky and
that foliage. And again she felt that mysterious sense
in her inmost soul that she was in a dual state.
" I must not, must not think," she said to herself.
" I must have courage. Where shall .1 go } When ?
Whom shall I take .-' Yes ! to Moscow by the evening
train, with Annushka and Serozha and only the most
necessary things. But first I must write to them both."
She hurried back into the house to her boudoir, sat
down at the table, and wrote her husband : —
After what has passed, I cannot longer remain in your house.
I am going away, and I shall take my son. I do not know the
laws, and so I do not know with which of his parents the child
should remain ; but I take him with me, because I cannot live
without him. Be magnanimous ; let me have him.
Up to this point she wrote rapidly and naturally ;
but this appeal to a magnanimity which she had never
seen in him, and the need of ending her letter with
something affecting, brought her to a halt.
" I cannot speak of my fault and my repentance,
because .... " Again she stopped, unable to find the
right words to express her thoughts. " No," she said,
" nothing more is necessary ; " and, tearing up this
74 ANNA KARENINA
letter, she began another, from which she left out any
appeal to his generosity, and sealed it.
She had to write a second letter, to Vronsky.
" I have confessed to my husband," she began ; and
she sat long wrapped in thought, without being able to
write more. That was so coarse, so unfeminine ! " And
then, what can I write to him.-'" she asked herself.
Again the crimson of shame mantled her face as she
remembered how calm he was, and she felt so vexed
with him that she tore the sheet of paper with its one
phrase into little bits. " I cannot write," she said to
herself ; and, closing her desk, she went up-stairs, told
the governess and the domestics that she was going to
Moscow that evening, and instantly began to make her
preparations.
CHAPTER XVI
In all the rooms of the villa, the men-servants, the
gardeners, the lackeys, were hurrying about laden with
various things. Cupboards and commodes were cleared
of their contents. Twice they had gone to the shop for
packing-cord ; on the floor lay piles of newspapers.
Two trunks, traveling-bags, and a bundle of plaids
had been carried into the anteroom. A carriage and
two cabs were waiting at the front door. Anna, who in
the haste of packing had somewhat forgotten her in-
ward anguish, was standing by her table in her boudoir
and packing her bag, when Annushka called her atten-
tion to the rumble of a carriage approaching the house.
Anna looked out of the window, and saw on the
steps Aleksef Aleksandrovitch's messenger-boy ringing
the front-door bell.
" Go and see what it is," said she, and then sat down
in her chair and, folding her hands on her knees,
waited with calm resignation. A lackey brought her
a fat packet directed in Aleksef Aleksandrovitch's
handwriting.
"The messenger was ordered to wait an answer,"
said he.
ANNA KARENINA ^5
"Very well," she replied; and as soon as he left the
room she opened the packet with trembling fingers. A
roll of fresh, new bank-notes, in a wrapper, fell out first.
She unfolded the letter and began to read it at the end.
" All the necessary measures for your return hither
will be taken I attach a very particular importance
to your attention to my request," she read.
She ran it through hastily backwards, a second time,
read it all through, and then she read it again from
beginning to end. When she had finished it, she felt
chilled, and had the consciousness that some terrible
and unexpected misfortune was crushing her.
That very morning she had regretted her confession
to her husband, and desired nothing so much as that she
had not spoken those words. And this letter treated
her words as if they had not been spoken, gave her
what she desired. And yet it seemed to her more
cruel than anything that she could have imagined.
" Right, he is right ! " she murmured. " Of course
he is always right ; he is a Christian, he is magnani-
mous ! Yes, the low, vile man ! No one understands,
no one knows him but me ; and I cannot explain it.
People say, ' He is a religious, moral, honorable, intel-
lectual man.' But they have not seen what I have
seen ; they do not know how for eight years he has
crushed my life, crushed everything that was vital in
me ; how he has never once thought of me as a living
woman who needed love. They don't know how at
every step he has insulted me, and yet remained self-
satisfied. Have I not striven, striven with all my
powers, to find a justification of my life .-' Have I not
done my best to love him, to love his son when I could
not love my husband .-" But the time came when I
found I could no longer deceive myself, that I am a
living being, that I am not to blame, that God has
made me so, that I must love and live. And now what ?
He might kill me, he might kill /nm, and I could endure
it, I could forgive it. But no, he....
" Why should I not have foreseen what he would do ?
He does exactly in accordance with his despicable char-
76 ANNA KARENINA
acter ; he stands on his rights. But I, poor unfortunate,
am sunk lower and more irreclaimably than ever toward
ruin. ' Yo?i may stinnise tvJiat awaits you and your son,' "
she repeated to herself, remembering a sentence in his
letter. " It is a threat that he means to rob me of my
son, and doubtless their wretched laws allow it. But,
do I not see why he said that ? He has no belief in my
love for my son ; or else he is deriding, — as he always
does, in his sarcastic manner, — is deriding this feeling
of mine, for he knows that I will not abandon my son —
I cannot abandon him; that without my son, life would
be unsupportable, even with him whom I love ; and that
to abandon my son, and leave him, I should fall like the
worst of women. This he knows, and knows that I
should never have the power to do so.
" * Our lives must remain tinchanged,' " she continued,
remembering another sentence in the letter. "This
life was a torture before ; but of late it has grown worse
than ever. What will it be now .-' And he knows all
this, — knows that I cannot repent because I breathe,
because I love; he knows that nothing except falsehood
and deceit can result from this : but he must needs pro-
long my torture. I know him, and I know that he
swims in perjury like a fish in water. But no; I will
not give him this pleasure. I will break this network of
lies in which he wants to enwrap me. Come what may,
anything is better than lies and deception.
" But how .'' Bozhe mof ! Bozhe moif ! Was there
ever woman so unhappy as I ? ....
" No, I will break it ! I will break it ! " she cried,
springing to her feet and striving to keep back the tears.
And she went to her writing-table to begin another
letter to him. But in the lowest depths of her soul she
felt that she had not the power to break the network of
circumstances, — that she had not the power to escape
from the situation in which she was placed, false and
dishonorable though it was.
She sat down at the table ; but, instead of writing,
she folded her arms on the table, and bowed her head
on them, and began to weep like a child, with heaving
ANNA KARENINA 77
breast and convulsive sobs. She wept because her
visions about an explanation, about a settlement of her
position, had vanished forever. She knew that now all
things would go on as before, and even worse than be-
fore. She felt that her position in society, which she
had slighted, and even that morning counted as dross,
was dear to her ; that she should never have the
strength to abandon it for the shameful position of a
woman who has deserted her husband and son and
joined her lover ; she felt that in spite of all her efforts
she should never be stronger than herself. She never
would know what freedom to love meant, but would be
always a guilty woman, constantly under the threat of
detection, deceiving her husband for the disgraceful so-
ciety of an independent stranger, with whose life she
could never join hers. She knew that this would be so,
and yet at the same time it was so terrible that she could
not acknowledge, even to herself, how it would end.
And she wept, unrestrainedly as a child who has been
punished sobs.
The steps of a lackey approaching brought her to
herself; and, hiding from him her face, she pretended
to be writing.
" The courier would like his answer," said the
lackey.
" His answer ? Oh, yes ! " said Anna. " Let him
wait. I will ring."
"What can I write.'"' she asked herself "How
decide by myself alone ? What do I know ? What do
I want ? Whom do I love ? "
Again it seemed to her that in her soul she felt the
dual nature. She was alarmed at this feeling, and
seized on the first pretext for activity that presented
itself so that she might be freed from thoughts about
herself.
" I must see AlekseY " (thus in thought she called
Vronsky) ; " he alone can tell me what I must do. I
will go to Betsy's. Perhaps I shall find him there."
She completely forgot that on the evening before,
when she told him that she was not going to the Prin-
f9. ANNA KARENINA
cess Tverskaya's, he said that in that case he should
not go there either.
She went to the table again, and wrote her husband: —
I have received your letter.
A.
She rang, and gave it to the lackey.
" We are not going," said she to Annushka, who was
just coming in.
" Not going at all ? "
"No; but don't unpack before to-morrow, and have
the carriage wait. I am going to the princess's."
" What gown shall you wear ? "
CHAPTER XVII
The croquet party to which the Princess Tverskaya
invited Anna was to consist of two ladies and their
adorers. These two ladies were the leading represen-
tatives of a new and exclusive Petersburg clique, called,
in imitation of an imitation, /es sept mei'veilles dii monde,
the seven wonders of the world. Both of them be-
longed to the highest society, but to a circle absolutely
hostile to that in which Anna moved. Moreover, old
Stremof, one of the influential men of the city, and
Liza Merkalof's lover, was in the service of Aleksei
Alcksandrovitch's enemies. From all these considera-
tions Anna did not care to go to Betsy's, and her refusal
called forth the hints in the Princess Tverskaya's note ;
but now she decided to go, hoping to find Vronsky
there.
She reached the Princess Tverskaya's before the other
guests.
Just as she arrived Vronsky's lackey, with his well-
combed side-whiskers, like a kammer-junker, was at
the door. Raising his cap, he stepped aside to let her
pass. Anna recognized him and only then remembered
that Vronsky had told her that he was not coming.
Undoubtedly he had sent him with his excuses.
ANNA KARENINA 79
As she was taking off her wraps in the anteroom
she heard the lackey, who rolled his R's like a kam>ner-
jtinker, say, " From the count to the princess," at the
same time he delivered his note.
She wanted to ask him where his barin was. She
wanted to go back and write him a note, asking him to
come to her, or to go and find him herself. But she
could not follow out any of these plans, for the bell
had already announced her presence, and one of the
princess's lackeys was waiting at the door to usher her
into the rooms beyond.
" The princess is in the garden. Word has been sent
to her. Would you not like to step out into the gar-
den ? " said a second lackey in the second room.
Her position of uncertainty, of darkness, was just the
same as at home. It was even worse, because she
could not make any decision, she could not see Vronsky,
and she was obliged to remain in the midst of a com-
pany of strangers diametrically opposed to her present
mood. But she wore a toilet which she knew was very
becoming. She was not alone, she was surrounded by that
solemn atmosphere of indolence so familiar; and on the
whole it was better to be there than at home. She was
not obliged to think what she would do. Things would
arrange themselves.
Betsy came to meet her in a white toilet absolutely
stunning in its elegance ; and Anna greeted her, as
usual, with a smile. The Princess Tverskaya was ac-
companied by Tushkievitch and a young relative who,
to the great delight of the provincial family to which
she belonged, was spending the summer with the famous
princess.
Apparently there was something unnatural in Anna's
appearance, for Betsy immediately remarked it.
" I did not sleep well," replied Anna, looking furtively
at the lackey, who was coming, as she supposed, to
bring Vronsky's note to the princess.
" How glad I am that you came ! " said Betsy. " I
am just up, and I should like to have a cup of tea before
the others come. And you," she said, addressing Tush-
8o ANNA KARENINA
kievitch, " had better go with Maska and try the kroket-
gro-und, which has just been cHpped. You and I will
have time to have a little confidential talk while taking our
tea. We '11 have a cozy chat, won't we ? " she added in
English, addressing Anna with a smile, and taking her
hand, in which she held a sunshade.
" All the more willingly because I cannot stay long.
I must call on old Vrede ; I have been promising for
a hundred years to come and see her," said Anna, to
whom the lie, though contrary to her nature, seemed
not only simple and easy, but even pleasurable. Why
she said a thing which she forgot the second after, she
herself could not have told ; she said it at haphazard,
so that, in case Vronsky were not coming, she might
have a way of escape, and try to find him elsewhere ;
and why she happened to select the name of old
Freilina Vrede rather than any other of her acquain-
tances was likewise inexplicable. But, as events proved,
out of all the possible schemes for meeting Vronsky,
she could not have chosen a better.
" No, I shall not let you go," replied Betsy, scruti-
nizing Anna's face. " Indeed, if I were not so fond of
you, I should be tempted to be vexed with you ; any-
body would think that you were afraid of my company
compromising you. — Tea in the little parlor, if you
please," said she to the lackey, blinking her eyes as
was habitual with her ; and, taking the letter from
him, she began to read it.
"Aleksei" disappoints us,"^ said she in French. "He
writes that he cannot come," she added, in a tone as
simple and unaffected as if it had never entered her
mind that Vronsky was of any more interest to Anna
than as a possible partner in a game of croquet. Anna
knew that Betsy knew all ; but, as she heard Betsy
speak of Vronsky now, she almost brought herself to
believe for a moment that she knew nothing.
" Ah ! " she said indifferently, as if it was a detail
which did not interest her. " How," she continued,
still smiling, "could your society compromise any one.-*"
* Alexis nous fait faux bond.
ANNA KARENINA 8i
This manner of playing with words, this hiding a
secret, had a great charm for Anna, as it has for all
women. And it was not the necessity of secrecy, or
the reason for secrecy, but the process itself, that gave
the pleasure.
"I cannot be more Catholic than the Pope," she said.
" Stremof and Liza Merkalof, they are the cream of the
cream of society. They are received everywhere. But
/" — she laid special stress on the/ — "/have never
been severe and intolerant. I simply have not had
time."
" No. But perhaps you prefer not to meet Stremof ?
Let him break lances with Aleksei Aleksandrovitch in
committee-meetings ; that does not concern us. But in
society he is as lovely a man as I know, and a passion-
ate lover of croquet. But you shall see him. And you
must see how admirably he conducts himself in his
ridiculous position as Liza's aged lover. He is very
charming. Don't you know Safo Stoltz } She is the
latest, absolutely the latest style."
While Betsy was saying all this, Anna perceived, by
her joyous, intelligent eyes, that she saw her embarrass-
ment and was trying to put her at her ease. They had
gone into the little boudoir.
" By the way, I must write a word to AlekseY."
And Betsy sat down at her writing-table, hastily
penned a few lines, and inclosed them in an envelop.
" I wrote him to come to dinner. One of the ladies
who is going to be here has no gentleman. See if I
am imperative enough. Excuse me if I leave you a
moment. Please seal it and direct it," said she at the
door, " I have some arrangements to make."
Without a moment's hesitation, Anna took Betsy's
seat at the table, and, without reading her note, added
these words : —
I must see you without fail. Come to the Vrede's Garden.
I will be there at six o'clock.
She sealed the letter ; and Betsy, coming a moment
later, despatched it at once.
82 ANNA KARENINA
The two ladies took their tea at a Httle table in the
cool boudoir, and had indeed a cozy chat as the princess
had promised, until the arrival of her guests. They
expressed their judgments on them, beginning with
Liza Merkalof.
" She is very charming, and she has always been
congenial to me," said Anna.
" You ought to like her. She adores you. Yesterday
evening, after the races, she came to see me, and was
in despair not to find you. She says that you are a
genuine heroine of a romance, and that if she were
a man, she would commit a thousand follies for your
sake. Stremof told her she did that, even as she was."
" But please tell me one thing I never could under-
stand," said Anna, after a moment of silence, and in a
tone which clearly showed that she did not ask an idle
question but that what she wanted explained was more
important to her than would appear. " Please tell me,
what are the relations between her and Prince Kaluzh-
sky, the man they call Mishka .-' I have rarely seen
them together. What are their relations .-' "
A smile came into Betsy's eyes, and she looked keenly
at Anna.
"It's a new kind," she replied. "All these ladies
have adopted it. They 've thrown their caps behind the
mill. But there are ways and ways of throwing them."
" Yes, but what are her relations with Kaluzhsky } "
Betsy, to Anna's surprise, broke into a gale of irresisti-
ble laughter, which was an unusual thing with her.
" But you are trespassing on the Princess Miagkaya's
province ; it is the question of an enfant terrible,'' said
Betsy, trying in vain to restrain her gayety, but again
breaking out into that contagious laughter which is the
peculiarity of people who rarely laugh. " But you must
ask them," she at length managed to say, with the tears
running down her cheeks.
" Well ! you laugh," said Anna, in spite of herself
joining in her friend's amusement; "but I never could
understand it at all, and I don't understand what part
the husband plays."
ANNA KARENINA 83
" The husband ? Liza Merkalof's husband carries
her plaid for her, and is always at her beck and call.
But the real meaning of the affair no one cares to know.
You know that in good society people don't speak and
don't even think of certain details of the toilet; well, it
is the same here."
" Are you going to Rolandaki's fite ? " asked Anna,
to change the conversation.
" I don't think so," replied Betsy ; and, not looking at
her companion, she carefully poured the fragrant tea
into little transparent cups. Then, having handed one
to Anna, she rolled a cigarette, and, putting it into a
silver holder, she began to smoke.
"You see, I am in a fortunate position," she began
seriously, holding her cup in her hand. " I understand
you, and I understand Liza. Liza is one of these nai've,
childlike natures, who cannot distinguish between ill and
good, — at least, she was so when she was young, and
now she knows that this simplicity is becoming to her.
Now perhaps she purposely fails to understand the dis-
tinction," said Betsy, with a sly smile. " But all the
same, it becomes her. You see, it is quite possible to
look on things from a tragic standpoint, and to get tor-
ment out of them; and it is possible to look on it sim-
ply, and even gayly. Possibly you are inclined to look
on things too tragically."
" How I should like to know others as well as I know
myself! " said Anna, with a serious and pensive look.
"Am I worse than others, or better.? Worse, I think."
"You are an enfant terrible, an enfant tertible^" was
Betsy's comment. " But here they are ! "
CHAPTER XVIII
Steps were heard, and a man's voice, then a woman's
voice and laughter, and immediately after the expected
guests came in : Safo Stoltz, and a young man called
Vaska, whose face shone with exuberant health. It was
evident that rich blood-making beef, burgundy, and truffles
84 ANNA KARENINA
had accomplished their work. Vaska bowed to the two
ladies and glanced at them, but only for a second. He
followed Safo into the drawing-room, and he followed
her through the drawing-room, as if he had been tied to
her, and he kept his brilliant eyes fastened on her as if
he wished to devour her. Safo Stoltz was a blond with
black eyes. She wore shoes with enormously high heels,
and she came in with slow, vigorous steps, and shook
hands with the ladies energetically, like a man.
Anna had never before met with this new celebrity,
and was struck, not only by her beauty, but by the ex-
travagance of her toilet and the boldness of her man-
ners. On her head was a veritable scaffolding of false
and natural hair of a lovely golden hue, and of a height
corresponding to the mighty proportions of her protu-
berant and very visible bosom. Her dress was so tightly
pulled back, that at every movement it outlined the
shape of her knees and thighs ; and involuntarily the
question arose : Where, under this enormous, tottering
mountain, did her neat little body, so exposed above,
and so tightly laced below, really end .''
Betsy made haste to introduce her to Anna.
" Can you imagine it ? We almost ran over two
soldiers," she instantly began to relate, winking, smiling,
and kicking back her train, which she in turn threw too
far over to the other side. " I was coming with Vaska
.... oh, yes ! You are not acquainted." And she intro-
duced the young man by his family name, laughing
heartily at her mistake in calling him Vaska before
strangers. Vaska bowed a second time to Anna, but
said nothing to her. He turned to Safo.
"The wager is lost. We came first," said he, smiling.
"You must pay."
Safo laughed still more gayly.
" Not now, though," said she.
" All right ; I '11 take it by and by."
" Very well, very well ! Oh, by the way ! " she sud-
denly cried out to the hostess. " I .... forgot ....stupid
that I was ! I bring you a guest ; here he is."
The young guest whom Safo presented, after having
ANNA KARENINA 85
forgotten him, was a guest of such importance that, not-
withstanding his youth, all the ladies rose to receive him.
This was Safo's new adorer; and, just as Vaska did,
he followed her every step.
Immediately after came Prince Kaluzhsky and Liza
Merkalof with Stremof. Liza was a rather thin brunette,
with an Oriental, indolent type of countenance, and with
ravishing, and as everybody said, inscrutable eyes. The
style of her dark dress was absolutely in keeping with
her beauty. Anna noticed it, and approved. Liza
was as quiet and unpretentious as Safo was loud and
obstreperous.
But Liza, for Anna's taste, was vastly more attractive.
Betsy, in speaking of her to Anna, had ridiculed her
affectation of the manner of an innocent child ; but
when Anna saw her, she " felt that this was not fair.
Liza was really an innocent, gentle, and irresponsible
woman, a little spoiled. To be sure, her morals were
the same as Safo's. She also had in her train, as if
sewed to her, two adorers, one young, the other old,
who devoured her with their eyes. But there was some-
thing about her better than her surroundings; she was
like a diamond of the purest water surrounded by glass.
The brilliancy shone out of her lovely, enigmatical eyes.
The wearied and yet passionate look of her eyes, sur-
rounded by dark circles, struck one by its absolute sin-
cerity. Any one looking into their depths would think
that he knew her completely ; and to know her was to
love her. At the sight of Anna, her whole face sud-
denly lighted up with a happy smile.
" Oh ! How glad I am to see you ! " she said, as she
went up to her. " Yesterday afternoon at the races I
wanted to get to you, but you had just gone. I was so
anxious to see you yesterday especially ! Too bad,
was n't it .-' " S3,id she, gazing at Anna with a look which
seemed to disclose her whole soul.
" Yes ! I never would have believed that anything
could be so exciting," replied Anna, with some color.
The company now began to get ready to go to the
lawn.
86 ANNA KARENINA
" I am not going," said Liza, sitting down near Anna
" You are n't going, are you ? What pleasure can any
one find in croquet?"
" But I am very fond of it," said Anna.
" There ! how is it that you don't get ennuy^e ? To
look at you is a joy. You live, but I vegetate."
" How vegetate .-' Why ! they say you have the gay-
est society in Petersburg," said Anna.
" Perhaps those who are not of our circle are still
more ennuyee. But we, it seems to me, are not happy,
but are bored, terribly bored."
Safo lighted a cigarette, and went to the lawn with
the two young men. Betsy and Stremof stayed at
the tea-table.
" How bored } " asked Betsy. " Safo says she had a
delightful evening with you yesterday."
"Oh ! how unendurable it was ! " said Liza. "They
all came to my house with me after the races, and it
was all so utterly monotonous. It is forever one and the
same thing. They sat on the divans the whole evening.
How could that be delightful.? No; but what do you
do to keep from being bored .-*" she asked again of
Anna. " It is enough to look at you ! You are evi-
dently a woman who can be happy or unhappy, but
never emiuy/e. Now explain what you do."
" I don't do anything," said Anna, confused by such
a stream of questions.
"That is the best way," said Stremof, joining the
conversation.
Stremof was a man fifty years old, rather gray, but
well preserved, very ugly, but with a face full of char-
acter and intelligence. Liza Merkalof was his wife's
niece, and he spent with her all his leisure time. Though
he was an employee in the service of Alekser Aleksandro-
vitch's political enemies, he endeavored, now that he met
Anna in society, to act the man of the world, and be
exceedingly amiable to his enemy's wife.
"The very best way is to do nothing," he continued,
with his wise smile. " I have been telling you this long
time," turning to Liza Merkalof, "that, if you don't want
ANNA KARENINA 87
to be bored, you must not think that it is possible to be
bored ; just as one must not be afraid of not sleeping if
he is troubled with insomnia. This is just what Anna
Arkadyevna told you."
" I should be very glad if I had said so," said Anna,
"because it is not only clever, it is true."
" But will you tell me why it is not hard to go to
sleep, and not hard to be free from ennui V
"To sleep, you must work; and to be happy, you
must also work."
" But how can I work when my labor is useful to no
one ? But to make believe, — I neither can nor will."
"You are incorrigible," sajd he, not looking at her,
but turning to Anna again. He rarely met her, and
could not well speak to her except in the way of small
talk ; but he understood how to say light things grace-
fully, and he asked her when she was going back to
Petersburg, and whether she liked the Countess Lidya
Ivanovna. And he asked these questions in a man-
ner which showed his desire to be her friend, and to
express his consideration and respect.
Tushkievitch came in just then and explained that
the whole company was waiting for the croquet players.
" No, don't go, I beg of you," said Liza, when she
found that Anna was not intending to stay. Stremof
added his persuasions.
"It is too great a contrast," said he, "between our
society and old Vrede's ; and then, you will be for her
only an object for slander, while here you will only
awaken very different sentiments, quite the opposite
of slander and ill-feeling."
Anna remained for a moment in uncertainty. This
witty man's flattering words, the childlike and naive
sympathy shown her by Liza Merkalof, and all this
agreeable social atmosphere, so opposed to what she
expected elsewhere, caused her a moment of hesitation.
Could she not postpone the terrible moment of expla-
nation } But remembering what she had to expect
alone at home if she should not come to some decision,
remembering the pain that she had felt when she
88 ANNA KARENINA
pulled her hair with both hands, not knowing what
she did, so great was her mental anguish, she took
leave, and went.
CHAPTER XIX
Vronsky, in spite of his worldly life and his apparent
frivolity, was a man who detested confusion. Once,
when still a lad in the School of Pages, he found him-
self short of money, and met with a humiliating refusal
when he tried to borrow. He vowed that henceforth
he would not expose himself to such a humiliation again,
and he kept his word. In order to keep his affairs in
order, he made, more or less often, according to circum-
stances, but at least five times a year, an examination of
his affairs. He called this "straightening his affairs,"
or, in French, faire sa lessive.
The morning after the races Vronsky woke late, and
without stopping to shave, or take his bath, put on his
kitel, or soldier's linen frock, and, placing his money and
bills and paper on the table, proceeded to the work of
settling his accounts. Petritsky, knowing that his com-
rade was likely to be irritable when engaged in such
occupation, quietly got up, and slipped out without dis-
turbing him.
Every man acquainted, even to the minutest details,
with all the complications of his surroundings, involun-
tarily supposes that the complications and tribulations of
his life are a personal and private grievance peculiar to
himself, and never thinks that others are subjected to
the same complications of their personal troubles he him-
self is. Thus it seemed to Vronsky. And not without
inward pride, and not without reason, he felt that, until
the present time, he had done well in avoiding the
embarrassments to which every one else would have suc-
cumbed. But he felt that now it was necessary for him
to examine into his affairs, so as not to be embarrassed.
First, because it was the easiest to settle, Vronsky
investigated his pecuniary status. He wrote in his
ANNA KARENINA 89
fluent, delicate hand a schedule of all his debts, and
adding them up found that the total amounted to seven-
teen thousand rubles, and some odd hundreds, which he
let go for the sake of clearness. Counting up his ready-
money and his bank-book, he had only eighteen hun-
dred rubles, with no hope of more until the new year.
Looking over the schedule of his debts, Vronsky classi-
fied them, putting them into three categories: first, the
urgent debts, or, in other words, those that required ready
money, so that, in case of requisition, there might not be
a moment of delay. These amounted to four thousand
rubles, — fifteen hundred for his horse, and twenty-five
hundred as a guaranty for his young comrade, Venevsky,
who had, in Vronsky's company, lost this amount in play-
ing with a sharper. Vronsky, at the time, had wanted
to hand over the money, since he had it with him ;
but Venevsky and Yashvin insisted on paying it, rather
than Vronsky, who had not been playing. This was all
very well ; but Vronsky knew that in this disgraceful
affair, in which his only participation was going as
Venevsky's guaranty, it was necessary to have these
twenty-five hundred rubles ready to throw at the rascal's
head, and not to have any words with him. Thus, he
had to reckon the category of urgent debts as four
thousand rubles.
In the second category were eight thousand rubles
of debts, and these were less imperative. These were
what he owed on his stable account, for oats and hay,
to his English trainer, and other incidentals. At a
pinch, two thousand would suffice to leave him perfectly
easy in mind. The remaining debts were to his tailor,
and other furnishers; and they could wait. In conclu-
sion, he found that he needed, for immediate use, six
thousand rubles, and he had only eighteen hundred.
For a man with an income of a hundred thousand
rubles, — as people supposed Vronsky to have, — it would
seem as if such debts as these could not be very em-
barrassing ; but the fact was that he had not an income
of a hundred thousand rubles. The large paternal
estate, producing two hundred thousand rubles a year,
90
ANNA KARENINA
had been divided between the two brothers. But when
the elder brother, laden with debts, married the Princess
Varia Tchirkof, the daughter of a Dekabrist,^ who
brought him no fortune, Aleksei yielded him his share
of the inheritance, reserving only an income of twenty-
five thousand rubles. He told his brother that this
would be sufficient for him until he married, which he
thought would never happen. His brother, who was in
command of one of the most expensive regiments in the
service and only just married, could not refuse this gift.
His mother, who possessed an independent fortune,
kept twenty-five thousand rubles for herself and gave
her younger son a yearly allowance of twenty thousand
rubles ; and Aleksef spent the whole of it. Recently
the countess, angry with him on account of his depar-
ture from Moscow and his disgraceful liaison, had ceased
to remit to him any money. So that Vronsky, who was
accustomed to living on a forty-five thousand ruble foot-
ing, and having this year only twenty-five thousand,
found himself in some extremity. He could not apply
to his mother to help him out of his difficulty, for her
letter which he had received the day before angered
him by the insinuations which it contained : she was
ready, it 
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